Becoming a First‐Time Grandparent and Subjective Well‐Being: A Fixed Effects Approach

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12584
• Author: Christiaan Monden,Paula Sheppard
• Published date: 01 August 2019
• Date: 01 August 2019

P S  C M University of Oxford

Becoming a First-Time Grandparent and Subjective

Well-Being: A Fixed Effects Approach

Objective: In this study, the authors examined

how individuals are affected by the change

in status to grandparenthood for the rst time.

Background: Being a grandparent, especially

an active and involved grandparent, is posi-

tively linked to the well-being of individuals

with grandchildren; however, little is known

about how becoming a grandparent affects

well-being.

Method: Longitudinal data pooled from 15

countries in Europe (Survey of Health, Ageing

and Retirement in Europe; http://www.share-

project.org) are used to analyze if becoming

a grandparent is associated with three mea-

sures of subjective well-being. The authors use

xed effects models to account for unobserved

heterogeneity.

Results: Becoming a rst-time grandparent

is associated with fewer depressive symptoms

among women, although there is no evidence

for an effect on subjective life expectancy or life

satisfaction. Formen, there is no evidence for an

impact on any outcome tested, although there

is an association with increased subjective life

expectancy conditional on employment status

only if men were employed when transitioning

to grandparenthood. The results provide no evi-

dence that actively looking after the grandchild

is important for either gender.

University of Oxford, 42-43 Park End Street, Oxford, OX1

1HH, UK (paula.sheppard@sociology.ox.ac.uk).

Key Words: grandchildren, grandparents, longitudinal

research, retirement, well-being.

Conclusion: These results suggest that, at least

for women, it is the life transition itself that

impacts on some aspects of well-being rather

than active grandchild care. More research is

needed to verify these ndings in other contexts

and for longer periods of time.

Active grandparenting is associated with

benets to both the grandchildren and the

grandparents. Empirical studies repeatedly

show that having grandchildren, and especially

spending time with them, is associated with

increased well-being and happiness (Arpino,

Bordone, & Balbo, 2018; Danielsbacka & Tan-

skanen, 2016). This body of research largely

focuses on active grandparenting rather than

the impact of the actual life transition; little

is known about how becoming a grandparent

affects well-being. In this article, we study how

individuals are affected by the change in status

to grandparenthood for the rst time.

The literature on becoming a grandparent

in relation to happiness, or other measures

of well-being, is surprisingly scant. As far

back as the 1980s, there have been calls to

investigate the transition to grandparenthood

(Cunningham-Burley, 1986; Hagestad & Lang,

1986). Recently, psychologists interested in the

nature of the social role of grandparenthood

made a similar call (Thiele & Whelan, 2006).

So far, there have been only a few small-scale

studies that focus on the transition itself—they

suggest that there might be a positive effect of

the change in status—but whether the transition

to grandparenthood is associated with positive

well-being outcomes has yet to be tested in a

1016 Journal of Marriage and Family 81 (August 2019): 1016–1026

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12584