Grandparent Co-residence, Grandchildren Development, and the Consequences of Increasing Adult Disability: Cross-National Evidence from DHS Data

Ismael Munoz , Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Guillermo Gómez, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Clara Bueno López, IEGD-CCHS Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Nestor Aldea, Spanish Research Council (CSIC), French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED)
Michael Lund, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Alberto Palloni, University of Wisconsin-Madison

In many modern populations, grandparents are increasingly becoming the primary caregivers of their grandchildren. This phenomenon has renewed interest in the role that grandparents play in within-family intergenerational transfers, their determinants, and their effects on family members, especially grandchildren. However, despite an extensive literature on the effects of grandparental care on their grandchildren survival and development, few studies have considered how forces driving the demographic and epidemiological transitions shape the demography of grandparenthood and intergenerational transfers. In particular, there are conditions in modern human populations that play an important role in reducing the potential supply and quality of grandparental care. This is that older adults may be exposed to an increased burden of disease and disability that compromises their health status and/or their physical capacity to provide support. In this study, we use cross-national DHS data from low- and middle-income countries to estimate, first, the association between grandparents’ co-residence and grandchildren nutritional status for each country and year. Second, we employ multilevel models and country-year level data on the prevalence of chronic conditions from the Global Burden of Disease Study, to assess the degree to which geographic and temporal variation in the effect of grandparent’s co-residence is associated with countries’ demographic and epidemiological characteristics that may affect older adults and their capacity to care for grandchildren.

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 Presented in Session 32. Grandparents and Grandparenting