Guided by theories and empirical research on intergenerational relationships, we examine the phenomenon of grandparents caring for grandchildren in contemporary China. Using a longitudinal dataset (China Health and Nutrition Survey), we document a high level of structural and functional solidarity in grandparent-grandchildren relationships. Intergenerational solidarity is indicated by a high rate of coresidence between grandchildren and grandparents, a sizable number of skipped-generation households (no parent present), extensive childcare involvement by non-coresidential grandparents, and a large amount of care provided by coresidential grandparents. Multivariate analysis further suggests that grandparents’ childcare load is adaptive to familial needs, as reflected by the characteristics of the household, household members, and work activities of the mothers.

Our findings suggest that grandchild care does not have a universally beneficial or detrimental effect on health, but rather its effect depends on the form and level of caregiving and is further shaped by individual characteristics, as well as normative and structural contexts.

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This article examines social stratification in individual health trajectories for multiple cohorts in the context of China's dramatically changing macro-social environment. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we find significant socioeconomic status (SES) differences in the mean level of health and that these SES differentials generally diverge over the life course. We also find strong cohort variations in SES disparities in the mean levels of health and health trajectories. The effect of education on health slightly decreases across successive cohorts. By contrast, the income gap in health trajectories diverges for earlier cohorts but converges for most recent cohorts. Both effects are more pronounced in rural areas. Given that these cohort effects are opposite those reported in recent U.S. studies, we discuss China's unique social, economic, and political settings. We highlight the association between SES and health behaviors, China's stage of epidemiologic transition, and the changing power of the state government and its implications for health care.Keywords socioeconomic status; health disparity; social change; cohort; life course Throughout the twentieth century, massive social changes swept through many countries around the world. Along with the two World Wars, the United States saw the Great Depression, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights movement. Across the globe, Chinese society went through a series of dramatic political, economic, and cultural upheavals, including the Communist Revolution (late 1940s), the Great Leap Forward and Famine (late 1950s), the Cultural Revolution (mid-1960s to 1970s), and the introduction of the post-Mao economic reforms (late 1970s to present). For sociologists interested in the linkage between social change and social stratification, the volatility of China's social surroundings, as well as the dominance of a powerful state socialist government, makes the country a unique and valuable resource for study.In this article, we focus on the social stratification of individual health trajectories in the context of China's ever-changing macro-social environment. We address the longstanding issue of social inequality and health, which extends back to the early Chicago school researchers Faris and Dunham (1939) and their work on socioeconomic status (SES) and mental disorders. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptAm Sociol Rev. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 April 7. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript SES and health. People with higher SES are more likely to report better health, greater levels of physical functioning and mobility, better mental health outcomes, and lower rates of disability and mortality (Kitagawa and Hauser 1973;Marmot 1999; Rogers, Rogers, and Belanger 1992;Turner, Wheaton, and Lloyd 1995). The seemingly universal relation between SES and health is clouded, however, when put in the context of aging and the life course; some prior studies report a convergence of health inequality by S...