The depressive price of being a sandwich-generation caregiver: can organizations and managers help?

Our study aimed to investigate for the first time, whether sandwich-generation caregivers, namely those who provide care to both their children and elders, are more likely to experience an increase in depressive symptoms over time, compared with employees who take care of children only, elders only, or who are not caregivers. We also examined whether resource loss in the form of a decrease in health status partially mediated this effect and whether organizational and managerial sources of support can attenuate these direct and indirect effects. Using a two-wave longitudinal design, we followed 1125 Israeli employees for 18 months on average. Controlling for multiple confounders, including indicators of care load and change in caregiving status, we found that sandwich-generation caregivers were indeed more likely to experience an increase in depressive symptoms, compared with all other caregiving statuses. We also found that compared to those who care for children only or to non-caregivers, the effect of SG caregiving was partially attributed to a decrease in health status and that the availability of family-supportive organizational practices and supervisor’s emotional support attenuated the effect of caregiving on depressive symptoms, such that SG caregivers benefited more from these sources of support.