Women from the mid-30s to mid-50s are less likely than Americans overall to be very happy, and many are racked by worries about aging parents and other family members.

Later marriages, later child-bearing and longer life spans are forcing more women into taking responsibility for their kids and their parents, says social demographer Janice Wassel of the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. The “sandwich” years don’t even go away by the 60s anymore.

“We’ve got these 60-year-olds who take care of 92-year-old parents and 16-year-old kids,” she says.

[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-11-12-women-study_x.htm?csp=34 “Read the Story”) (USA Today)