A Change is (not) Gonna Come: A twenty-year overview of Italian grandparents-grandchildren exchanges

Abstract

Levels of coresidence, residential proximity, face-to-face contacts and intergenerational support exchanges remain overall high and stable across European countries. However, to date, few studies have focused on trends in grandparent-grandchild relations. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether and to what extent grandparent-grandchild exchanges have changed over time. We used data from the Italian Surveys on Family, covering the years 1998-2016, and considered three different currencies of exchanges between grandparents and their grandchildren (coresidence, face-to-face contacts, and grandchild care provision). Our results showed an astonishing stability over time in these indicators of grandparent-grandchild exchanges, with only a small reduction in daily contacts. Also, we found little changes in the associations between such indicators of intergenerational exchanges and the demographic and socio-economic determinants usually used to explain them. Despite changes among Italian grandparents such as increases in their age profile, in education, and in marital disruption, the relations between grandparents and their grandchildren remain stable over time with generally high levels of intergenerational exchanges.