Does grandparenting pay off? The effect of child care on grandparents' cognitive functioning
Does grandparenting pay off? The effect of child care on grandparents' cognitive functioning
The authors examined whether the provision of child care helps older adults maintain better cognitive functioning. Descriptive evidence from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (n = 5,610 women and n = 4,760 men, ages 50–80) shows that intensively engaged grandparents have lower cognitive scores than the others. The authors show that this result is attributable to background characteristics and not to child care per se. Using an instrumental variable approach, they found that providing child care has a positive effect on 1 of the 4 cognitive tests considered: verbal fluency. For the other cognitive tests, no statistically significant effect was found. Given the same level of engagement, they found very similar results for grandmothers and grandfathers. These findings point to the inclusion of grandparenting among other cognitively stimulating social activities and the need to consider such benefits when discussing the implications of this important type of nonmonetary intergenerational transfer.
child care, cognition, instrumental variable approach, intergenerational transfers, grandparents
337-351
Arpino, Bruno
dbf9d7e9-a77a-45a1-84ae-b5fc37ab7a84
Bordone, Valeria
88af471f-1f47-440e-9546-7e83912c71a9
April 2014
Arpino, Bruno
dbf9d7e9-a77a-45a1-84ae-b5fc37ab7a84
Bordone, Valeria
88af471f-1f47-440e-9546-7e83912c71a9
Arpino, Bruno and Bordone, Valeria
(2014)
Does grandparenting pay off? The effect of child care on grandparents' cognitive functioning.
Journal of Marriage and Family, 76 (2), .
(doi:10.1111/jomf.12096).
Abstract
The authors examined whether the provision of child care helps older adults maintain better cognitive functioning. Descriptive evidence from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (n = 5,610 women and n = 4,760 men, ages 50–80) shows that intensively engaged grandparents have lower cognitive scores than the others. The authors show that this result is attributable to background characteristics and not to child care per se. Using an instrumental variable approach, they found that providing child care has a positive effect on 1 of the 4 cognitive tests considered: verbal fluency. For the other cognitive tests, no statistically significant effect was found. Given the same level of engagement, they found very similar results for grandmothers and grandfathers. These findings point to the inclusion of grandparenting among other cognitively stimulating social activities and the need to consider such benefits when discussing the implications of this important type of nonmonetary intergenerational transfer.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 20 November 2013
e-pub ahead of print date: 4 March 2014
Published date: April 2014
Keywords:
child care, cognition, instrumental variable approach, intergenerational transfers, grandparents
Organisations:
Gerontology
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 389459
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/389459
ISSN: 0022-2445
PURE UUID: e1ac8e09-5bac-4614-a164-3169ee2f802f
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 08 Mar 2016 09:48
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 23:04
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Bruno Arpino
Author:
Valeria Bordone
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics