Grandma and Grandpa Taking Care of the Kids: Patterns of Involvement

Abstract

verview Over the last decade, considerable media attention and public discussion have focused on the varied roles that grandparents play in family life. Much of this public attention has centered on grandparents who assume parental responsibilities for their grandchildren. 1 Similarly, grandparents are recognized for the active but temporary roles they assume during times of crisis or special need, such as in cases of a parental divorce or military deployment. 2 Yet child care provided in such contexts constitutes only a small proportion of all child care assistance provided by grandparents. The more typical pattern is for grandparents to baby-sit over the weekend or during the evening, look after grandchildren when parents are at work, or take care of grandkids under other, more routine, circumstances. Using data from two large national surveys, this Research Brief presents a statistical snapshot of grandparental child care in American families. The brief sheds light on who provides this care, what type and how much is provided, and considers some of the financial benefits of this care for the families involved. While most research on grandparents has focused almost exclusively on grandmothers, 3 this brief considers child care provided by both grandmothers and grandfathers. 4 Analyses reveal that many grandparents provide some type of child care to their grandchildren, an important type of ongoing assistance to their adult children that reflects the lifelong patterns of support between parents, children, and grandchildren. 5 Although grandmothers are more likely to provide child care, many grandfathers do so as well. The data also suggest that, while some grandparents provide child care for only a few hours a week, many are providing substantial amounts of this assistance, and, in fact, may be juggling child care responsibilities with their own work schedules. 6 Another, perhaps surprising finding, was that although most grandparental child care is unpaid, a small but significant percentage of families with young children report paying grandparents for the child care they provide.

Full-time versus part-time employment: Does it influence frequency of grandparental childcare?

“…Point estimates of the frequency of care vary somewhat between studies, but the gender gap is found consistently. For instance, Guzman (2004) reports that 52 % of U.S. grandmothers and 38 % of U.S. grandfathers provide some childcare, whereas Hank and Buber (2009), analyzing data from 10 European countries, report that 58 and 49 % of grandmothers and grandfathers care for grandchildren, respectively. Furthermore, grandfathers tend to provide childcare less often without their spouse (Uhlenberg and Hammill 1998) and are less often engaged in intensive care (Hank and Buber 2009).…”

“…Earlier research relied on somewhat oversimplified measures of employment status and typically distinguished only two categories of labor force attachment: for instance, employed/not employed (Baydar and Brooks-Gunn 1998;Guzman 2004;Igel and Szydlik 2011;Wang and Marcotte 2007) or working/not working (Aasve et al 2012;Hank and Buber 2009;Lee and Bauer 2010;Uhlenberg and Hammill 1998). The most detailed measurement involved three categories: working full-time, working part-time, and not working (Luo et al 2012;Silverstein and Marenco 2001).…”

Regional family cultures and child care by grandparents in Europe

“…Evidence consistently shows that grandmothers are more likely to be engaged in it than grandfathers, particularly in case of intensive child care (Fuller-Thomson and Minkler 2001;Brandis 2003;Guzman 2004;Fokkema, Ter Bekke, and Dykstra 2008;Hank and Buber 2009;Igel and Szydlik 2011;Danielsbacka 2011;Ghysels 2011). Younger grandparents tend to provide more child care than older grandparents (Fuller-Thomson and Minkler 2001;Hank and Buber 2009).…”

“…Other parents choose grandparental child care because it is the most convenient. Using grandparental child care may also represent the only affordable or available option (Wheelock and Jones 2002;Brandis 2003;Guzman 2004;Fergusson, Maughan, and Golding 2008 (Hank and Buber 2009). A European aged 50 years and over spends on average 0,5 hours per day looking after grandchildren, while she or he devotes on average 1,5 hours working in the market and 0,3 hours helping relatives, friends or neighbours (Croda and Gonzalez-Chapela 2005).…”

European grandparents’ solicitude

“…A number of supplementary independent variables were included, mainly as controls, in order to avoid possible confounding influences related to demographic characteristics, availability, health and attitudes (Attias-Donfut et al, 2005;Baydar and Brooks-Gunn, 1998;Guzman, 1999Guzman, , 2004Hank and Buber, 2009;Kuhltau and Mason, 1996;Presser, 1989;Silverstein and Marenco, 2001;Vandell et al, 2003). Among those were gender of the selected child (male ¼ 0, female ¼ 1), allowing for tracing lineage patterns; distance to the selected child, ranging from same household (0) to more than 500 km away (8); educational level of the selected child (from none/little ¼ 0 to higher university level ¼ 6); whether the selected child had a partner/spouse (1) or not (0), as well as the selected child's age in years above 25.…”