Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 51, Issue 6 S274-S283, Copyright © 1996 by The Gerontological Society of America

ARTICLES

Caught in the middle? Occupancy in multiple roles and help to parents in a national probability sample of Canadian adults

CJ Rosenthal, A Martin-Matthews and SH Matthews
Office of Gerontological Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

This article considers, for a Canadian national probability sample of middle-aged women and men, the question of how typical is the experience of being "caught in the middle" between being the adult child of elderly parents and other roles. Three roles are examined: adult child, employed worker, and parent (and a refinement of the parent role, being a parent of a co-resident child). Occupancy in multiple roles is examined, followed by an investigation of the extent to which adults in various role combinations actually assist older parents and whether those who provide frequent help are also those "sandwiched" by competing commitments. The majority of middle-aged children do not provide frequent help to parents. Notably, the highest proportion of daughters who assist elderly parents are those in their fifties whose children are no longer co-resident. For both sons and daughters, being "caught in the middle" is far from a typical experience in this cross-sectional analysis.

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