A study lead by Emilio Zagheni, a UW assistant professor of sociology is believed to be the first to break down unpaid caregiving in the United States by age and gender of caregivers and those they care for and reveals some surprising truths about caregiving in America.
The study found that almost one-third of the U.S. population are informal caregivers and collectively provide about 1.2 billion hours of unpaid work weekly. But the so-called sandwich generation (people who care for their aging parents while supporting their own children) comprises just 3 percent of total informal caregivers, much less than researchers anticipated. Also noted, there are fewer adults caring for their aging parents than anticipated.