Grandparenting and Well-Being of the Elderly in China

Grandparenting duties can affect the well-being of the elderly both positively and negatively. This paper disentangles the interactions between grandparenting, quality of life, and life satisfaction in China. Using a panel dataset of 3205 respondents in three waves of the China Health and Retirement...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of family issues 2023-12, Vol.44 (12), p.3142-3175
Main Authors: Luo, Qi, Fidrmuc, Jan, Wang, Hao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economics and Finance
Grandparents
Humanities and Social Sciences
Intergenerational relationships
Life satisfaction
Longitudinal studies
Older people
Panel data
Quality of life
Retirement
Well being
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Summary:Grandparenting duties can affect the well-being of the elderly both positively and negatively. This paper disentangles the interactions between grandparenting, quality of life, and life satisfaction in China. Using a panel dataset of 3205 respondents in three waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2011, 2013, and 2015, we find that grandparents who look after grandchildren are less at risk of depression, receive more financial and in-kind transfers from their children, and report greater life satisfaction than grandparents who do not look after grandchildren. These benefits vary across gender and rural-urban status, however. The positive effect of grandparenting is driven mainly by the direct effect with negligible mediating effect attributable to better quality of life.
ISSN:0192-513X
1552-5481
DOI:10.1177/0192513X221127024