Abstract
Objectives:Grandparents are an important source of childcare. However, caring for grandchildren may affect grandparents’ health in both positive and negative ways. Our study examines the association between grandparental childcare and grandparents’ health at 2- and 4-year follow-up.Method:Our study is based on grandparents aged 50 and older from Waves 1–4 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Using multivariate analyses, we investigated associations between intensive and nonintensive grandparental childcare at Wave 2 and subsequent health (self-rated health, depressive symptoms, and disability) controlling for covariates and health at baseline. Associations between changes over time in grandparental childcare and health at follow-up were also explored. Multiple imputation techniques and sensitivity analyses were undertaken to investigate possible biases arising from sample attrition.Results:Grandparents looking after grandchildren, whether intensively or nonintensively, experienced some health benefits. Associations strengthened when attrition was accounted for, particularly if it is assumed that those who dropped out of the study were in poor health.Discussion:Our results show better health among grandparents who provided grandchild care in the European countries studied. These results are important given the widespread provision of grandchild care in Europe.
Highlights
Researchers have become increasingly interested in grandparents in the last decade as populations age and their roles in society, care, and work have become more visible to policy makers
As evidence suggests that patterns of attrition are likely to bias results, in a second stage, we used multiple imputation (MI) under the missing at random (MAR) assumption to explore the effects of missing data on the association between grandparental childcare and health
Our aim was to assess the impact of childcare provision on self-rated health (SRH), depressive symptoms, and ADL disability among older grandparents in Europe
Summary
Researchers have become increasingly interested in grandparents in the last decade as populations age and their roles in society, care, and work have become more visible to policy makers Research in this arena is bedeviled by definitional issues and data constraints, it is clear that grandparents play an important role in looking after their grandchildren. If an individual’s obligations exceed his/her physical and psychological capacity to cope, this may cause an increase in stress and physical demands which in turn may be detrimental for health. This may be the case for those grandparents who act as primary carers or who provide full-time care for their grandchildren. Grandparents who provide occasional grandchild care may benefit from the emotional rewards and gratification stemming from this activity, which in turn may have a positive effect on health
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