TY - JOUR
T1 - Caring as curing
T2 - Grandparenting and depressive symptoms in China
AU - Choi, Seung won Emily
AU - Zhang, Zhenmei
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by the Center for Family and Demographic Research, Bowling Green State University, which has core funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development ( P2CHD050959 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Research on grandparenting (i.e., caring for grandchildren) and mental health in Asian contexts has been limited, despite the rapid growth of older adults who take care of grandchildren. This study aims to investigate how grandparenting influences depressive symptoms in China. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011–2015, N = 4354), we conducted fixed effects regression models to examine the association between various types of grandparenting and depressive symptoms among older adults between the ages of 45 and 80. The results show that for grandparents, providing care to their grandchildren in skipped-generation households (i.e., grandparent-grandchildren families without adult children) is associated with a lower level of depressive symptoms compared to providing no care, after controlling for socioeconomic status, health behaviors, social support, and basic demographic characteristics. Other types of care (i.e., multigenerational household grandparenting, and part-time and full-time noncoresident grandparenting) are not significantly linked to caregiving grandparents’ depressive symptoms. Overall, our findings suggest that sociocultural contexts need to be considered in explaining the different mental health implications of grandparenting.
AB - Research on grandparenting (i.e., caring for grandchildren) and mental health in Asian contexts has been limited, despite the rapid growth of older adults who take care of grandchildren. This study aims to investigate how grandparenting influences depressive symptoms in China. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011–2015, N = 4354), we conducted fixed effects regression models to examine the association between various types of grandparenting and depressive symptoms among older adults between the ages of 45 and 80. The results show that for grandparents, providing care to their grandchildren in skipped-generation households (i.e., grandparent-grandchildren families without adult children) is associated with a lower level of depressive symptoms compared to providing no care, after controlling for socioeconomic status, health behaviors, social support, and basic demographic characteristics. Other types of care (i.e., multigenerational household grandparenting, and part-time and full-time noncoresident grandparenting) are not significantly linked to caregiving grandparents’ depressive symptoms. Overall, our findings suggest that sociocultural contexts need to be considered in explaining the different mental health implications of grandparenting.
KW - Caregiving
KW - Intergenerational relationships
KW - Living arrangements
KW - Mental health
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116417732&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114452
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114452
M3 - Article
C2 - 34624620
AN - SCOPUS:85116417732
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 289
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
M1 - 114452
ER -