Income and educational differences in grandparental childcare: evidence from English grandmothers and grandfathers

ABSTRACT

Grandparents are actively involved in grandchildren's lives, but there is little research concerning socio-economic differences in the content of the relationship. This study explores the socio-economic gradient in childcare provided by grandparents, touching on the intensity of care, the activities performed with grandchildren and the motives driving this involvement, by grandparents’ gender. We explore two dimensions of socio-economic status, education and family income, pertaining to different dimensions of grandparents’ and grandchildren's relationship: child development versus parental childcare needs. Using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA 2016–2017, 2018–2019), logistic regression models show that intensive care is more common for grandfathers in the lowest income tercile. A high income decreases involvement in physical care activities (i.e. preparing meals); instead, the involvement is driven by motives to help children financially. Higher education is a good predictor of support with homework, driven by motives to ‘help grandchildren develop as people’. Even though grandfathers show an involvement in grandchildren's upbringing, highly-educated grandmothers remain the most inclined to offer support. Overall, the study suggests that grandparents’ involvement in grandchildren's lives could be among the mechanisms structuring the intergenerational transmission of inequality.

KEYWORDS:

• ELSA
• grandparents
• educational gradient
• childcare

Acknowledgements

This analysis uses data or information from the Harmonized ELSA dataset and Codebook, Version E as of April 2017 developed by the Gateway to Global Aging Data. The development of the Harmonized ELSA was funded by the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG030153, RC2 AG036619, 1R03AG043052). For more information, please refer to www.g2aging.org.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Francesca Zanasi

Francesca Zanasi is a sociologist interested in intergenerational relations and work-family reconciliation from a life course perspective. She holds a PhD in Sociology and Social Research obtained at Tilburg University, within a joint program with the School of Social Sciences at the University of Trento. As part of her PhD, her research has centered on the relation between care responsibilities and employment among older people, taking into consideration individuals’ previous work-family history, and the institutional context. Recently, her research has focused on health inequality in later life (CREW project, University of Florence); family arrangements of older migrants, and the consequences of parental separation on children’s education (Great Demographic Recession PRIN project, University of Bari). She is currently a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence, carrying out a project on the consequences of grandparents’ time with grandchildren on grandchildren outcomes.

Inge Sieben

Inge Sieben is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Her research interests are comparative research on religion, morality and family values, and social stratification research, mainly about inequalities in educational opportunities. She published her work in Work, Employment and Society, European Sociological Review, Acta Sociologica and European Societies, and is co-author of the Atlas of European Values.