The health of grandparents caring for their grandchildren: the role of early and mid-life conditions

Karen F. Glaser, King's College London
Giorgio Di Gessa, King's College London
Anthea Tinker, King's College London

Background: Grandparents are an important source of childcare. However, concerns have been raised that caring for grandchildren may come at the expense of grandparents’ own wellbeing. Our study examines the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between various types of grandparental childcare and grandparents’ own physical and psychological health, and focuses on the extent to which such associations are directly and indirectly affected by cumulative advantage/disadvantage across the life course. Methods: We used a sample of grandparents aged 50+ from waves 1-3 of two nationally representative longitudinal studies of older people from selected European countries, i.e. the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, and the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Both datasets provide detailed retrospective life histories, including childhood characteristics (such as health and socio-economic position), and adulthood conditions (marital history, unemployment spells, adverse life events such as bereavement). Health outcomes considered were self-rated health, depressive symptoms and physical health. Both logistic regressions and structural equation models were used in order to disentangle how and whether childhood and adulthood factors interact –both directly and indirectly– with grandparental childcare to affect grandparents’ own health. Preliminary results: We found little evidence to suggest that intensive grandparental childcare provision has negative effects on grandparents’ health. We also found some evidence to suggest health benefits to grandparents who provide occasional childcare. Grandparents who co-reside with grandchildren (either in skipped- or multi-generation households) are more likely to experience negative changes in self-rated health and functional limitations. However, such health differences are largely associated with grandparents’ prior characteristics – particularly childhood circumstances and work history. Discussion: Preliminary findings suggest that poorer health among grandparents who provide intensive grandchild care, or who coreside with their grandchildren, do not appear to be a consequence of care provision per se, but rather of their initial health and socio-economic disadvantage.