The Demography of Grandparenthood: An International Profile (original) (raw)

Abstract

This comparative study addressed three open questions about the demography of grandparenthood in contemporary societies: First, at what age do people become grandparents? Second, how is grandparenthood sequenced with other transitions in later life? Third, how long is the grandparent life stage? To answer these questions, we analyzed retrospective data from the United States (NSFH) and 24 European countries (GGS, ESS, DEAS). Using survival methods, we estimated (1) age at grandparenthood; (2) demographic overlap with parenting, worker, and filial roles; and (3) expected length of the grandparent life stage. Three central findings emerged from the analysis: First, the timing of grandparenthood varies strongly across countries. Cross-national differences in the median age at grandparenthood are larger than in age at parenthood, age at retirement, and life expectancy. Compared to the United States (49 years among women, 52 years among men), grandparenthood in Eastern Europe occurs up to three years earlier in life; in Western Europe, up to eight years later. Second, cross-national variation in the life-course context of grandparenthood is less pronounced. In all countries, grandparenthood overlaps rarely with active parenting but frequently with worker and filial roles. Third, the length of the grandparent life stage is more strongly influenced by the timing of fertility than by the timing of mortality. The longest years of life shared with grandchildren (35 years) are expected among grandmothers in East Germany and the United States; the shortest (21 years) among grandfathers in West Germany and Spain.

Key takeaways

• These include grandparents' capacity of providing childcare (Hank and Buber 2009); the labor-force participation of grandmothers (van Bavel and de Winter 2013) and their daughters (Arpino, Pronzato, and Tavares 2014); role strain, role enhancement, and associated health effects of "on-time" and "off-time" grandparenthood (Chen and Liu 2012); the division of labor in grandparent couples (Leopold and Skopek 2014); grandparental influence on the intergenerational transmission of economic, social, and cultural resources (Mare 2014); and kinship structure, in particular the notion of "longer years of shared lives" (Bengtson 2001).
• A life-course perspective directs attention not only to timing of grandparenthood per se, but particularly to the questions of how the meaning of grandparenthood and experience of the grandparent role are influenced by the presence or absence of other roles.
• Based on this approach, we assessed the timing of grandparenthood in two ways: first, by estimating the quartile ages at which 25, 50, and 75 percent of those at risk are expected to be grandparents; second, by estimating probabilities of being a grandparent at different ages (45, 50, 55, 60, 65, and 70).
• Combined with the median age at grandparenthood, these data provide estimates for the expected length of the grandparent life stage among men and women.
• In light of our comparative findings, these considerations suggest that grandparent effects on grandchild outcomes vary cross-nationally, and that some of this variation is explained by the timing of grandparenthood and the related life-course conditions.

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