The perceived meaning of eldercare among the sandwich generation of Koreans in Korea and Korean immigrants in the United States

Bibliographic Data

ID8130669
AuthorsByung Soo Lee (0009-0004-6506-1127, Department of Sociology and Criminology, University at Buffalo, SUNY, 430 Park Hall, 197 Founders Promenade University at Buffalo, North Campus Buffalo, New York 14260-4140, United States, corresponding author)
Year2026
Publication date2026-01-16
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Forces (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-7732 • E-ISSN: 1534-7605
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/sf/soaf244
OpenAlexW7124756239
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited29

Despite a growing body of elder care literature on the Korean population, how the so-called sandwich generation perceives and practices filial norms in the Korean and United States context has not been clearly addressed. Using data from in-depth interviews with 100 Koreans and 136 Korean immigrant adults, this study explores how sandwich generation Koreans and Korean immigrants in the United States perceive filial obligation for their aging parents, what they do to prepare for their own later life and what they expect from their children when they become older and need care from others. The findings indicate that almost all of the study participants maintain traditional notions of filial piety, but they show ambivalent attitudes toward the practice of filial obligation and their expectation from their own children in their later lives in Korea and the United States. Depending on the individual or familial factors, their filial practices have adapted to changing demographic and social realities, constructing the new forms of filial piety

Ambivalence · Context (archaeology · Immigration · Meaning (existential · Moral obligation · Obligation · Aging and Gerontology Research · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies

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