Is grandparental childcare socio-economically patterned? Evidence from the English longitudinal study of ageing.

ABSTRACT: Grandparents play a vital role in providing childcare to families. Qualitative research and evidence from parents raise concerns that it is grandparents who are socio-economically disadvantaged who provide grandchild care more regularly, perform more intensive tasks, and care out of financial necessity. However, no European studies have investigated these issues at population level. This study is based on grandparents aged 50+ who looked after grandchildren. Data are from wave 8 of the nationally representative English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2016/2017). We exploit newly collected information on frequency of grandchild care, activities, and reasons for care. Using multinomial regressions, we first examined the extent to which grandparents' socio-economic characteristics (wealth and e

SUBMITTER: Di Gessa G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9424417 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature