Personality Traits and Provision of Grandparental Childcare in Europe

Michael Kraemer, University of Zurich
Bruno Arpino , University of Padua
Valeria Bordone, University of Vienna
Giorgio Di Gessa, University College London

Previous studies have analyzed how several grandparents’ characteristics influence grandchild care provision but the role of grandparents’ personality has been overlooked. We use data from the waves 7 and 8 of the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe that included the Big 5 personality traits (PTs) for the first time. Overall, we found a positive and substantial association between openness, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness and any grandchild care provision. However, PTs did not have an impact on the frequency of grandchild care provision, with the exception of conscientiousness that was also positively and substantially associated with at least weekly grandchild care provision.

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 Presented in Session 89. Childcare