Grandparents’ Role in Spanish Families’ Work/Life Balance Strategies

Abstract

In recent years, grandparental childcare has been instrumental to Spanish parents’ ability to engage in paid work. At the same time, the use of formal childcare services, paid domestic assistance and parental leave-taking have also intensified. The objectives of this study are: (1) to estimate the scope of the support received from grandparents in caring for children; and (2) to assess the impact of the diversification of childcare resources on highly frequent grandparental childcare in two-parent families. The sample covered the 2304 parents with at least one child under 13 interviewed on the occasion of the Survey on the Use of Parental Leave in Spain, 2012. Three types of factors were analysed: (1) use of external childcare resources; (2) time devoted by parents to childcare and paid work; and (3) control factors measuring grandparents’ availability, childcare needs and income. The findings suggested that international comparative studies based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) underestimate the scope of grandparental childcare. Two-parent families with higher incomes resorted less frequently to grandparental childcare. In addition, formal childcare services, paid domestic work and parental leaves are associated with less frequent grandparental involvement. Overall, the findings suggest that more diversified deployment of the available resources may contribute to reducing grandparental childcare.