Backup Parents, Playmates, Friends: Grandparents' Time With Grandchildren
| Author | Kathleen M. Ziol‐Guest,Christopher E. Near,Rachel E. Dunifon |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12472 |
| Published date | 01 June 2018 |
| Date | 01 June 2018 |
R E. D C E. N Cornell University
K M. Z-G RAND Corporation∗
Backup Parents, Playmates, Friends: Grandparents’
Time With Grandchildren
Grandparents play varied roles in their grand-
children’s lives. Prior work has focused mostly
on historical trends in and implications of
grandparent coresidence and has not con-
sidered more broadly how grandparents and
grandchildren interact. Using time-use diary
data for 6,762 person-years from the 1997
to 2007 waves of the Panel Study of Income
Dynamics Child Development Survey, the
authors examine patterns in the amount and
activity composition of time American children
spent with their grandparents, differentiated by
family structure, adult employment, and child’s
age. Results showed that although only about
7% of children lived with their grandparents,
many more children spent time with their grand-
parents: about 50% of young children, 35% of
elementary-age children,and 20% of teens spent
at least some time with their grandparents in a
typical week. This suggests that grandparents
play a variety of roles in their grandchildren’s
lives, depending on the amount and kinds of
support needed.
Recent demographic trends suggest that grand-
parents may play increasingly inuential roles in
College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, 1300
Martha van Rensselaer Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401
(red26@cornell.edu).
∗RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA
90401.
Key Words: family structure, grandchildren, grandparents,
parenting grandchildren.
the lives of their grandchildren (Dunifon, 2013).
Despite this, we know little about the extent
and nature of the time that grandparents and
grandchildren spend together. Some research
describes the trends in (Dunifon, Ziol-Guest,
& Kopko, 2014; Pilkauskas & Dunifon, 2016)
and the well-being of children living with
their grandparents (Billing, Macomber, &
Kortenkamp, 2002; Dubowitz et al., 1994; Kel-
ley, Whitley, & Campos, 2011; Pittman, 2007;
Smith & Palmieri, 2007). However, we know
little about how many children spend time with
their grandparent in a typical week, how much
time they spend together, and what types of
activities they do together, particularly when
children do not live with their grandparents.
This article uses child-based time-use data to
examine the activities that grandparents and
grandchildren do together in a typical week.
We measure the extent and nature of their inter-
actions and study how such interactions vary
by the structuring factors of child age, parental
employment, and family type. Understanding
the time contributions of grandparents sheds
light on the potentially important role that they
play in the lives of their grandchildren.
V I G R
There are many reasons to think that grand-
parents may play important roles in the lives
of their grandchildren (Dunifon, 2013). Life
expectancy increased from less than 50 years
in 1900 to almost 80 years by 2005 (National
Center for Health Statistics, 2010), meaning
752 Journal of Marriage and Family 80 (June 2018): 752–767
DOI:10.1111/jomf.12472
Grandparents’ Time 753
that more grandparents are able to enjoy sus-
tained relationships with their grandchildren
over longer periods of time. The availability of
Social Security and other public policy invest-
ments have increased nancial stability among
older Americans, giving them more time to
spend in retirement, with potentially greater
time available to spend with grandchildren
(Szinovacz, 1998). Family sizes have decreased
as well—in 1955 the average household with
children had 2.18 children; now that number
is 1.86 (Census Bureau, 2009)—meaning that
grandparents may be able to invest more in
fewer grandchildren than before. In addition,
most children live near their grandparents: Half
of the teenagers in a recent study using national
data lived less than 9miles from a grandparent,
with 20% living less than 1 mile away (Duni-
fon & Bajracharya, 2012). Thus, grandparents
have the potential to play an inuential role in
the lives of their grandchildren. Despite this,
important information on the extent and nature
of the interactions between grandparents and
grandchildren is missing. This is particularly
the case for children who do not live with their
grandparents, who represent the vast majority
of U.S. children.
Relatively few studies examine the relation-
ships between grandparents and grandchildren
who do not live together. Research that does
exist indicates that grandchildren often live
within close proximity of a grandparent and
that the majority of grandchildren report hav-
ing a high relationship quality and level of
contact with their grandparents (Dunifon &
Bajracharya, 2012). The sparse research in this
area is due in large part to the lack of survey
data on grandparent–grandchild interactions
(Dunifon, 2013). Time-use data gathered from
the child’s perspective represents an excellent
opportunity to understand the activities chil-
dren do with their grandparents, regardless of
whether they live together.
Evidence on how the grandparent–grandchild
relationship inuences the well-being of chil-
dren who do not live with their grandparent is
mixed, with some showing no linkages (Cherlin
& Furstenberg, 1992; Dunifon & Bajracharya,
2012), whereas other evidence indicates that
children fare better when their grandparents
are more highly involved (Elder & Conger,
2000; Ruiz & Silverstein, 2007; Yorgason,
Padilla-Walker, & Jackson, 2011). There is some
evidence that positive grandparent–grandchild
relationship quality is most benecial for
children in single-parent families (Ruiz &
Silverstein, 2007; Yorgason et al., 2011).
Other research focuses on children living with
their grandparents, providing information on the
characteristics, prevalence, and well-being of
such families. This research typically considers
two family types: three-generation households,
consisting of grandparental, parental, and grand-
child generations in one household; and what we
refer to as “grandfamilies,” households in which
grandparents are raising their grandchildren
with no parent present. Studies of census data
(Dunifon et al., 2014; Pilkauskas & Dunifon,
2016) tell us that the prevalence of grandfamilies
has held steady for several decades at around 2%
of all U.S. children, whereas the prevalence of
children living in three-generation households
has increased during recent decades, from about
6% in 1990 to 9% of all U.S. children today.
Looking across all of childhood, 30% of all U.S.
children will live with a grandparent at some
point. Children are most likely to live with a
grandparent in the rst year of life, and racial
and ethnic minority children are more likely
to do so as well (Amorim, Dunifon, & Pil-
kauskas, 2017). Factors associated with living in
a three-generational household include maternal
employment, single parenthood, being African
American or Hispanic, and lower maternal
education, whereas grandparent employment
status is negatively associated with living in
a three-generational arrangement (Augustine
& Raley, 2013). Research also suggests that
three-generational households are more com-
mon when children are younger (Amorim et al.,
2017; Dunifon et al., 2014).
Some research documents the well-being of
children living with their grandparents, with
results showing that those living in grand-
families in some age ranges have elevated
behavior problems and worse academic out-
comes (Billing et al., 2002; Dubowitz et al.,
1994; Kelley et al., 2011; Pittman, 2007; Smith
& Palmieri, 2007) than children who do not
live with their grandparents. Research linking
three-generational living arrangements to child
well-being is mixed, with some studies showing
that children living in three-generational house-
holds have lower well-being (McLanahan
& Sandefur, 1994), whereas other stud-
ies suggest benets for children living in
three-generational arrangements (Augustine &
To continue reading
Request your trial