Defining Multigenerational Caregiving in Human Resource Development: A Systematic Review and the HRD-CARE Model of Human Capital Depreciation

Abstract

Multigenerational caregiving remains conceptually underdeveloped in human resource development (HRD). Guided by an a priori HRD-CARE scaffold, this systematic review analyzes 30 empirical studies through operational synthesis, inductive axial coding, and deductive theoretical integration. We define multigenerational caregiving as an employment-embedded care-role configuration in which an employee holds unpaid responsibility for providing or coordinating care to at least one older-generation and one younger-generation dependent during an overlapping period . The synthesis refines the scaffold into a cross-level model linking care-role complexity, temporal-emotional load, participation variance, prediction-error misclassification, developmental latency, and human capital depreciation. Depreciation is not inherent in caregiving; it becomes more likely when availability-weighted systems misread constrained participation as diminished commitment, readiness, or potential. The model advances five propositions and identifies HRD design levers for preserving developmental continuity and preventing avoidable human capital loss across the employee life course.