“Traditional: Those sandwiched between aging parents who need care and/or help and their own children.
Club Sandwich: Those in their 50’s or 60’s, sandwiched between aging parents, adult children and grandchildren, OR, those in their 30’s and 40’s, with young children, aging parents and grandparents.
Open Faced: Anyone else involved in elder care.” (Abaya, n.d.)
Based on telephone recruitment for our national survey, we found prevalence rates indicating that dual-earner, sandwiched-generation couples comprise between 9 and 13 percent of American households having telephones and one or more persons aged 30 through 60. Our findings also reveal that the typical working, sandwiched couple consists of a 44-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman who have been married for about 18 years. The husband works about 49 hours per week, while the wife works about 38 hours per week. They have 2 children aged 18 or younger in the household and they each help two aging parents, step-parents, or parents-in-law. The help they provide these aging parents is primarily with instrumental, not personal, activities of daily living, and includes help with transportation, shopping, making care-related decisions, housekeeping, and managing money.” (Hammer & Neal, 2005)