The demography of grandparenthood in 16 European countries and two North American countries

Intergenerational relationships between grandparents and grandchildren can offer tremendous benefits to family members of each generation. The demography of grandparenthood – the timing, length and population characteristics – shape the extent to which young children have grandparents available, how many grandparents are alive, and the duration of overlap with grandparents. In this chapter, we examine how the demography of grandparenthood varies across 16 countries in Europe and two countries in North America, and why it is changing. Next, we examine variation in two key determinants of intergenerational relationships – the labour force participation and health of grandparents. Last, we comment on some important changes in the demography of grandparenthood that may come in the future.

Introduction: widening the lens on grandparenting

It is important that patterns of contact and transfers of time and material resources between family generations continue to receive attention, yet it is also essential to broaden the enquiry to examine the evolving nature and meanings of these transfers, and changes in intergenerational relationships more generally. The demographic and welfare state contexts of grandparenting have retained their central importance, and evince some intriguing developments, not in the least the postponement in the age of becoming a grandparent in some contexts. Grandparenting in countries that are undergoing rapid economic and social development is flagged as an area of growing interest. Gender and intersectionalities are brought into particularly close focus, through investigations into the gendered divisions of labour among grandmothers and grandfathers. The growing importance of transnational grandparenting is emphasised. Grandparental roles, agency and influence are highlighted as topics that deserve more attention.

The composition of grandparent childcare: gendered patterns in cross-national perspective

Grandparents are important providers of childcare while their adult children participate in work and other activities. The literature suggests that grandmothers are more likely than grandfathers to provide care for their grandchildren, and that the prevalence and intensity of grandparent childcare provision varies by country. But research is lacking on the composition of grandparent childcare time, and whether this varies across countries. What patterns do we see in the gendered distribution of childcare tasks among grandparents? To what extent does this vary across countries with different employment patterns, family policy regimes and norms of familial obligation? Using Time Use Surveys of Australia, Korea, Italy and France this chapter will explore how grandparents are spending their time with grandchildren. It reveals cross-national similarities and differences in the gendered distribution and relative composition of care and discusses the implications for grandmothers and grandfathers in the four different welfare regimes.

Grandfamilies in the United States: an intersectional analysis

This chapter utilised the theoretical framework of intersectionality to provide a critical analysis of grandparents raising grandchildren, or grandfamilies, in the United States. The analysis focused on how grandparents’ multiple social identities may overlap and conflict with one another, and how these social identities are embedded within historical and cultural contexts that privilege some social identities over others. By considering representational, structural, and political intersectionality, the current analysis revealed that oppressive discourses related to age, gender, race, and class are central to understanding the challenges facing grandfamilies. Even the family structure itself can be a basis for marginalisation. Finally, the analysis also revealed how social systems of oppression are reproduced structurally through federal and state policies that, while designed to be supportive, may further oppress and disempower grandfamilies with specific social identities..

Transnational grandmother–grandchild relationships in the context of migration from Lithuania to Ireland

This chapter examines the impact of transnational family migration on the relationships between Lithuanian migrant adolescents living in Ireland and their non-migrant grandmothers residing in Lithuania. Drawing on cross-generational perspectives obtained through multi-sited, in-depth interviews, this chapter focuses on three major themes, namely: 1) the changing nature of grandmother-grandchild relationship as perceived by both parties involved; 2) practices endorsed in maintaining intergenerational ties transnationally; and 3) the key factors contributing to the grandmother-grandchild relationship in transnationally dispersed families. Findings discussed in this chapter contribute to the study of intergenerational relationships by providing a more nuanced understanding of how significant physical distance and long-time separation affect relationships, contact practices, and perceived emotional ties between grandparents and grandchildren.

Grandparental childcare: a reconceptualisation of family policy regimes

In this chapter we argue that to understand the ways that policy, structure and culture all shape how grandmothers help to care for children, we need to re-think our approach to these issues. We need in particular to think about policies in terms of how they impact on mothers and grandmothers simultaneously, providing different and complex incentives and opportunities in each generation. This leads us to conceptualise childcare as something that is organised in the wider family, and to think of family care versus formal care when considering the wider impacts on individuals and society, rather than focussing on maternal versus non-maternal childcare. It also necessitates thinking about how cultures of gender, family and paid work might be influencing family-level discussions and negotiations. We show that conceptualising childcare as a family collaboration framed by policy and culture helps to explain substantial variations in grandmaternal childcare across Europe..

Can Chinese grandparents say no? A comparison of grandmothers in two Asian cities

This chapter examines two dominant research constructs namely, ‘cultural obligation’ and ‘intergenerational reciprocity’ in caring for grandchildren in Chinese societies – Fuzhou and Singapore. Drawing on Social Relational Theory (SRT), it examines the agency of grandmothers through unpacking the rationales for their involvement or non-involvement in childcare, and the goals and meanings they ascribe to their decisions. Grandparents are viewed as agents: capable of setting goals, devising plans, strategies and taking actions to achieve their goals in the relational contexts with their adult children and grandchildren. The key research questions addressed in this chapter are : (1) to what extent do grandmothers in Fuzhou and Singapore are influenced in their decisions to provide childcare by similar yet diverse Confucian roots; (2) understanding the socio-cultural discourses of grandparenthood in Fuzhou and Singapore; and (3) whether such discourses will constrain or facilitate their sense of agency in decision making.

How grandparents influence the religiosity of their grandchildren: a mixed-methods study of three-generation families in the United States

This chapter examines how grandparents influence (and don’t influence) the religiosity of descending generations within families in the United States. Using data from a longitudinal study of multigenerational families, and applying a mixed methods approach, we find that passing down religious values is a goal for which many grandparents are willing to invest considerable time and effort; however, a majority of families follow a path toward greater secularization, potentially creating opportunities for intergenerational conflict. The results of this study indicate that grandparents are diversified in their ability to transmit their religious orientations through the generations, and that family continuity in religion is often linked to grandparental intervention and the capacity of grandparents to forge strong emotional ties to their grandchildren.

Conclusions: the grandparents’ century?

This chapter contains reflections on the notion that the 21st century could be called the ‘grandparents’ century’. This is a reference to the prediction that, by the middle of this century, there will be relatively more ‘old’ people than children in the global population. As the majority of older adults are grandparents, the global population in the 21st century is characterised by the presence of unprecedented numbers of grandparents. Grandparents will be increasingly old, and many of them will enjoy good health. In some cases, they might even compete over the opportunity to spend time with and care for one or two grandchildren. Higher proportions of the younger grandparents will be working, if the plans to extend working lives succeed, but they will share such long spans of life with their grandchildren that they might have a better opportunity to bond when the latter are teenagers or young adults. Grandparents, rather than parents, might become important sources of direct material transfers to their grandchildren. Whether and when people become grandparents, and how this varies across contexts, and across cohorts, is set to define a new type of inequality – in access to, or inability to enter, the grandparent role.

Class-based grandfathering practices in Finland

This chapter focuses on class-based features of grandfathering in the context of a Nordic welfare state. Based on interviews with 17 middle- and working-class Finnish grandfathers, the chapter shows that while men’s grandparenting practices are not limited to auxiliary roles to assist grandmothers, grandchildren’s age has an effect on how grandfathers spend time with their grandchildren. School-aged children received most attention, and working-class grandfathers tended to provide their grandchildren with practical skills, whereas middle-class were focused more on increasing their grandchildren’s social capital. Working-class grandfathering practices emphasised creating continuity between men’s generations and transferring masculine knowledge. In the middle-class, active grandfather role was explained by the pressures of working life among the middle generation. Day care services, provided by the welfare state, are not flexible enough to meet the needs of middle-class families whose work demands are set by global enterprises, and who thus need support from grandparents.