More and more grandparents take care of their grandchildren
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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The help of the older generation in the care and upbringing of kids is invaluable. Who besides them will tell, will give advice and help the young parents? Moreover, who will love the child so tenderly, take care of it and surround with attention?
However, relationships between young families and their parents are not always so smooth.
A new study by the University of Chicago showed that 60% of grandparents take care of their grandchildren for ten years, and 70% of those who help a young family - for two or more years.
The latest results of the census conducted in 2010, indicate what the role of the older generation in the process of raising children and in general in their lives. 8% of elderly people live with their grandchildren, and 2.7 million provide them with everything necessary. In 2006 this figure was 2.4 million.
In addition, grandparents help mothers care for the child. This is due to the fact that 30% of women who have children under five years old are employed at work.
"Our research demonstrates that the assistance of representatives of the older generation is different, as is the degree of its provision. For example, grandparents with low income or lack of higher education agree to look after the child much more willingly, "says study co-author, Professor Linda White.
While a minority of elderly people with low incomes were ready to shoulder the household management and education of their grandchildren, most of such a desire did not show, limited only by a small share of participation in their lives.
The study, whose goal was to reveal the degree and level of assistance of the older generation to young families, was conducted from 1998 to 2008 with the support of the National Institute for the Study of Aging. During the long-term study, 13,614 grandparents were interviewed at the age of 50 years and older. At intervals of two years, specialists determined how much time and attention they pay to their grandchildren.
Scientists have identified several forms of such care - when children and grandchildren live together with older people and do not concern themselves with farming, and when grandparents take full custody of grandchildren without the participation of their parents.
The results of the studies demonstrate the following results:
- African Americans and Hispanics are more likely than Europeans to live in large families consisting of several generations, and among these residents there are more often families in which grandparents are engaged in the education of grandchildren on their own.
- Grandparents with higher incomes and education will most likely hire a nanny for the child, than they will take care of themselves.
- Those representatives of the eldest, a generation who are still married, more willingly agree to babysit.
- In the event that families of both generations live under the same roof, older people less often interfere in the process of raising a child.
- Grandparents who have the least desire to help - they are people at a respectable age, divorced and, most likely, unemployed.
These studies can be useful for planning public policies in the family and social protection of children.
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