Dr. Longacre’s Research Featured in Wall Street Journal

By Caitlin Burns | February 21, 2020

Margaret Longacre headshot

Dr. Margaret Longacre, assistant professor of Public Health, was featured in the Feb. 12 Wall Street Journal article ‘I Feel Very Torn Between My Child and My Dad’—Demands Intensify for the ‘Sandwich Generation’ for her work on the National Alliance for Caregiving’s (NAC) report on Sandwich Generation Caregiving. The article references key findings of the original NAC report, highlighting the struggles that Sandwich Generation Caregivers face.

This report studied the demographics of caregivers (the Sandwich Generation) who provide care to adults with chronic illness or disability and also have a child/children in the home.

The Wall Street Journal article explores the same struggles that the report sheds light on, such as caregivers spending an average of 22 hours a week caring for someone, while often simultaneously juggling work; struggling with emotional, financial, and physical stress; helping with transportation, housework, and preparing meals for the individuals cared for; and feeling unprepared to do therequired medical/nursing tasks required, as well as being primarily Generation X and Millennials.

Dr. Longacre, who wasis one of three academic advisers for the report published last fall, reviewed data from more than 300 Sandwich Generation caregivers, and compared it to non-sandwich caregivers from a nationally representative dataset from the 2015 study, Caregiving in the U.S., which provided perspectives relevant to her field of study–health systems.