School of Business Administration, Northeastern University.
School of Business, University of Queensland.
J Occup Health Psychol. 2024 Oct;29(5):359-372. doi: 10.1037/ocp0000388. Epub 2024 Aug 29.
The sandwich generation faces dual responsibilities of supporting parents and raising children, resulting in heightened levels of stress and negative work-related outcomes. Despite a wealth of research on the sandwich generation, few studies have examined the specific nature of the multigenerational needs of the sandwich generation. Accordingly, we introduce a new concept termed family intergenerational stress (FIS), which refers to the interaction and integration of stresses from elder caregiving, child-rearing, and associated challenges with self-definition. Through the lens of FIS, we collected interview data from 137 sandwich generation employees, secondary network data, and field observation data from 21 employees. We further used grounded theory to explore employees' stress and coping responses to dual family responsibilities. Findings indicate that employees with both elder caregiving and child-rearing responsibilities experience FIS. This, in turn, threatens their identity as an ideal worker and is associated with lower work engagement. Findings further reveal that in coping with FIS, employees adopt different identity-based strategies. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
三明治世代既要赡养父母又要养育子女，面临双重责任，压力和与工作相关的负面后果也随之增加。尽管有大量关于三明治世代的研究，但很少有研究探讨三明治世代的多代际需求的具体性质。因此，我们引入了一个新概念，称为家庭代际压力（FIS），它指的是来自于照顾老人、养育子女以及与自我定义相关的挑战的压力的相互作用和整合。通过 FIS 的视角，我们从 137 名三明治世代的员工那里收集了访谈数据、二级网络数据和 21 名员工的实地观察数据。我们进一步使用扎根理论探讨了员工对双重家庭责任的压力和应对反应。研究结果表明，有照顾老人和养育子女责任的员工会经历 FIS。这反过来又威胁到他们作为理想员工的身份，与较低的工作投入度相关。研究结果还表明，在应对 FIS 时，员工会采用不同的基于身份的策略。讨论了理论和实践意义。
