Grandparenting and the Well-Being of Older Adults

The Economist recently announced the arrival of the age of the grandparent.¹ The ratio of grandparents to children under the age of 15 has increased from 0.46 in 1960 to 0.8 in 2022.¹ By 2050, the number of grandparents is expected to surpass the number of children.¹

These demographic traits have been largely attributed to several demographic trends. Over the past six decades, life expectancy has increased from 51 to 72 years.¹ Furthermore, partly due to family diversification, the share of children living with grandparents has also increased; in 2018, roughly 10 percent of U.S. children lived with their grandparents.²

In these households, grandparents frequently serve as the primary care provider for roughly 40 percent of the children. Grandparents often provide emotional support, help with homework, and supervise children; thus, grandparent involvement tends to have a beneficial impact on children’s well-being.³

Yet the steep rise in the caregiving responsibilities of grandparents raises the question: How does caring for grandchildren affect the health and well-being of grandparents?

Research suggests that the impact of grandparenting on children differs significantly depending on the outcome. To illustrate, McKay and Nadorff (2021) found that relative to non-custodial grandparents, custodial grandparents (i.e., those who cared for their grandchildren full-time ) scored higher on several dimensions of cognitive tests, such as word recall, letter fluency, and cognitive similarities.⁴ Certain cognitive skills like digital ordering skills also decreased at slower rates over time.

The impact of grandparenting on the physical health of grandparents, however, differs significantly depending on the intensity of the caregiving responsibilities. For custodial grandparents, grandparenting is associated with a higher risk of having elevated stress levels, emotional distress, depressive symptoms, limited activities of daily living, and poorer self-reported stress.⁵

For grandparents in multigenerational households who likely share childcare responsibilities with their children’s parents, grandparenting appears to be both beneficial and detrimental.⁵ By contrast, for non-resident grandparents who care for their children on a part-time basis, grandparenting tended to have a beneficial impact on physical health.⁵

Grandparenting may also have a negative impact on the financial well-being of grandparents. Although there is considerable variation across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups, resources generally flow downward from grandparents to adult children and grandchildren.⁶ When grandparents “double up” with grandchildren and/or their parents, they end up serving as “hosts” and often become responsible for their own expenses as well as those of their parents.⁷ Furthermore, the conflicting demands from the labor market and caregiving for grandchildren may force some custodial grandmothers to withdraw from the labor market.⁸

Grandparenting may also adversely affect grandparents’ chances in the dating market. A recent study by Harris (2023) found that caregiving activities tended to limit their dating life.⁹ According to this study, older single adults postponed dating until care work was completed.

Men often found older single women with heavy caregiving responsibilities less desirable. Older single women found men with close ties to their families to be more desirable, but they reported aversion towards partners whose caregiving burden may add to their own caregiving responsibilities.

Overall, these findings suggest that grandparenting has mixed consequences for the well-being and health of grandparents. As a society, we must ensure that grandparents who take care of their grandchildren have adequate financial, emotional, and instrumental support. This ensures that grandparenting is an act of love that fulfills older adults, not a heavy burden that they need to take on during their golden years.