The Transition to Grandparenthood

Hägestad, Gunhild O.; Lang, Mary E.

doi:10.1177/019251386007002001

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Grandmothers, and particularly maternal grandmothers, have longer overlap with grandchildren than grandfathers because of age differences between spouses compounded over two generations and sex differences in mortality (Hagestad and Lang 1986;Keck and Saraceno 2008). This study adds gender differences in morbidity as another dimension, which has implications for the healthy period of overlap between grandmothers/grandfathers and grandchildren.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Healthy Grandparenthood: How Long Is It, and How Has It Changed?

Margolis

Wright

2017

Demography

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Healthy grandparenthood represents the period of overlap during which grandparents and grandchildren can build relationships, and grandparents can make intergenerational transfers to younger kin. The health of grandparents has important implications for upward and downward intergenerational transfers within kinship networks in aging societies. Although the length of grandparenthood is determined by fertility and mortality patterns, the amount of time spent as a healthy grandparent is also affected by morbidity. In this study, we estimate the length of healthy grandparenthood for the first time. Using U.S. and Canadian data, we examine changes in the length of healthy grandparenthood during years when grandparenthood was postponed, health improved, and mortality declined. We also examine variation in healthy grandparenthood by education and race/ethnicity within the United States. Our findings show that the period of healthy grandparenthood is becoming longer because of improvements in health and mortality, which more than offset delays in grandparenthood. Important variation exists within the United States by race/ethnicity and education, which has important implications for family relationships and transfers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Healthy Grandparenthood: How Long Is It, and How Has It Changed?

Margolis

Wright

2017

Demography

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“…The lack of knowledge about the timing of transitions to grandparenthood is reflected in popular depictions of grandparents who are often portrayed as far too old in television and print media (Hagestad and Lang 1986). Earlier grandparent research has claimed that grandparenthood "has been and will continue to be a change which typically occurs in midlife" (Hagestad 1988, 407) and proposed age bounds of, for example, 38 and 60 to define off-time transitions that occurred "too early" or "too late" (Burton and Bengtson 1985).…”

Section: Empirical Evidence On the Timing Of Grandparenthoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Demography of Grandparenthood: An International Profile

Leopold¹,

Škopek²

2015

Social Forces

124

108

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T his comparative study addressed three open questions about the demography of grandparenthood in contemporary societies: First, at what age do people become grandparents? Second, how is grandparenthood sequenced with other transitions in later life? Third, how long is the grandparent life stage? To answer these questions, we analyzed retrospective data from the United States (NSFH) and 24 European countries (GGS, ESS, DEAS). Using survival methods, we estimated (1) age at grandparenthood; (2) demographic overlap with parenting, worker, and filial roles; and (3) expected length of the grandparent life stage. Three central findings emerged from the analysis: First, the timing of grandparenthood varies strongly across countries. Cross-national differences in the median age at grandparenthood are larger than in age at parenthood, age at retirement, and life expectancy. Compared to the United States (49 years among women, 52 years among men), grandparenthood in Eastern Europe occurs up to three years earlier in life; in Western Europe, up to eight years later. Second, cross-national variation in the life-course context of grandparenthood is less pronounced. In all countries, grandparenthood overlaps rarely with active parenting but frequently with worker and filial roles. Third, the length of the grandparent life stage is more strongly influenced by the timing of fertility than by the timing of mortality. The longest years of life shared with grandchildren (35 years) are expected among grandmothers in East Germany and the United States; the shortest (21 years) among grandfathers in West Germany and Spain.

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“…Much of this body of work has concentrated on mothers with, latterly, more attention being paid to fathers ' transition to parenthood. Less is known, however, about the change to grandparenthood (Cunningham-Burley, 1986;Hagestad & Lang, 1986). This is despite the fact that becoming a grandparent heralds a signifi cant life transition (Cunningham-Burley, 1986) as familial roles and the generational structure of families change (Hagestad & Lang, 1986).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

By the way knowledge: Grandparents, stillbirth and neonatal death

Murphy

Jones

2014

Human Fertility

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Over the past 50 years, academic interest in the experiences of parents who lose a baby to stillbirth or neonatal death has grown. Stillbirth is defined in the UK as the death of a baby after 24 weeks' gestation and neonatal death is death within the first 4 weeks of life. Less is known about the experience of grandparents after such an event. As grandparents might expect to play an important role in their putative grandchild's life, including the provision of childcare to support parental employment, it seems likely that the baby's death will impact upon them. We argue that existing academic knowledge of grandparents' experiences of reproductive loss is 'by the way' knowledge, garnered incidentally from other research projects, for example, losing a grandchild per se or where researchers have interviewed grandparents as part of wider family research. The experience of grandparents who lose a grandchild at or around the time of birth should not go unnoticed. Research into their experiences can inform about the place in the family, if any, that is afforded to the unborn child before birth and whether, like fathers and the siblings of babies who have died, grandparents are also 'forgotten mourners'.

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The Transition to Grandparenthood

Cited by 22 publications

References 13 publications

Healthy Grandparenthood: How Long Is It, and How Has It Changed?

Healthy Grandparenthood: How Long Is It, and How Has It Changed?

The Demography of Grandparenthood: An International Profile

By the way knowledge: Grandparents, stillbirth and neonatal death

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