Outline of presentation
Grandparenting in Europe
Anthea Tinker on behalf of Karen Glaser, Deborah Price,
Eloi Ribe Montserrat, Giorgio di Gessa and Rachel
Stuchbury
King’s College London
anthea.tinker@kcl.ac.uk
Australia May 2013
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Outline of presentation
Outline of presentation
The research study:
1. Funder and timescale
2. The objectives of the research
3. The research questions
4. Findings
a) Grandparent characteristics
b) Living arrangements
c) Child care
d) Policy
5. Conclusions
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1. The research study – funder and
timescale
1. Funder and timescale
 Supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation through Grandparents Plus and
the Beth Johnson Foundation
 Start April 2011/October 2011 – March 2013
 Preliminary Findings Briefing June 2012
 Final Report May 2013
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2. The objective of the research
2. The objectives of the research
 To investigate variations across Europe in
the diversity of grandparents, how
grandparents contribute to childcare, and
how policies are related to patterns of
grandparenting.
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3. The research questions
3. The research questions
1. How do the living arrangements of grandparents
vary across European countries and how have
they changed over time?
2. How do the characteristics of grandparents vary
across 12 European states in terms of age,
number of grandchildren, marital status, socioeconomic status, participation in paid work, and
well-being?
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3. The research questions
3. The research questions (ctd)
3. How does the level of involvement of grandparents
with their grandchildren vary across Europe in
terms of care? What characteristics of grandparents
help to explain the diversity of care arrangements?
4. How do family policies interact with gender,
family, care and labour market cultures and
structures to shape the levels of involvement of
grandparents with their grandchildren?
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4a. Findings: Grandparent Characteristics
 How do the characteristics of grandparents
vary across12 European countries? (e.g. age,
number of grandchildren, marital status, socioeconomic status, participation in paid work,
and well-being)
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Data Sources
Data sources
 ELSA (England) and SHARE – Austria,
Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain,
Italy, France, Denmark, Greece, Switzerland
and Belgium.
 Both surveys are based on people aged 50
and over are comparable.
% of older adults who are grandparents: 12 European
States
70
65
60
55
50
45
EN
9
FR
DK
SE
DE
NL
BE
AT
CH
ES
IT
Source: SHARE, 2004/05; ELSA, 2002/03; own calculations. Weighted
data.
GR
Age profile grandparents
Age profile grandparents
 Considerable variation in % grandparents who
are of working age (i.e. 50-64 age group).
 England relatively high percentage (41%) as
France and the Scandinavian countries (e.g.
Denmark 50%)
 Southern European countries only one third.
Mean number of grandchildren
Source: SHARE, 2004/05; ELSA, 2002/03; own calculations. Weighted data.
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•English grandparents also have more grandchildren than their
European counterparts, with an average of nearly five (4.9)
compared with an average across the other 11 countries of 4.2.
% grandparents with at least one
grandchild aged 0-2
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
40.8
33.7 32.3 33.8
29.6 27.5
25.3
25.3
19.6
FR
DK
SE
DE
18.5
NL
BE
AT
CH
ES
Source: SHARE, 2004/05; own calculations. Weighted data.
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•Dutch grandparents most likely have grandchild < 3
followed by French, Danish and Swedish.
IT
22.5
GR
% grandparents in paid work
29.1 30.4
32
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23.1
22.5
17.8
17.1
16
16
14.5 14.1
11
9
9
IT
GR
8
0
EN
FR
DK
SE
DE
NL
BE
AT
CH
ES
Source: SHARE, 2004/05; ELSA, 2002/03; own calculations. Weighted
data.
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4b. Living Arrangements
4a. Findings: Summary: who
grandparents are
English grandparents are relatively young, more
likely to be in paid work and have more
grandchildren on average than grandparents in
the remaining 11 European countries. One in
four aged 50+ are in paid work compared with 1
in 7 across the other 11 studied. Only Denmark
and Sweden have a higher % of working
grandparents
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4b. Living Arrangements
4b. Findings: Living arrangements
 Examine changes in living arrangements
between grandparents and grandchildren
over time (with or without the parents
being present) in England & Wales, France,
Germany, Portugal and Romania.
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Data Sources
 Trends in prevalence of grandparent households
 Multivariate analysis to investigate how grandparent
households vary across selected European countries
and U.S.
 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series International
(IPUMS), the ONS Longitudinal Study for England
& Wales, and the German Socio-Economic Panel
Study (SOEP).
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The Findings
The findings
 Increase in prevalence over time in skippedgeneration households (no parents present)in
England & Wales (as in U.S. But not in other
European countries). This rose from 0.25% of adults
aged 35 and over in 1981 to 0.42% in 2001.
 Skipped-generation households much more likely to
have older grandchild – raised by grandparents?
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4c. Research Question
4c: Findings: child care
While overall grandparents in the European countries provide
high levels of childcare are striking variations in the intensity
and frequency of care provided. In France, Denmark, Sweden
and the Netherlands between 50% and 60% of grandparents
provide some childcare compared with 40% in the Southern
European countries. However, regular and intensive
grandchild care is more common in Southern Europe, with
20% of grandparents in Italy providing almost daily childcare
compared with just 2% in then Netherlands
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4c. Research Question
4c: Findings: child care
Across the European countries studied, grandparents who are
younger, with higher educational levels, in better health, and
whose youngest grandchild is under age six are more likely to
provide childcare
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4c. Research Question
4d: Findings: policy
To what extent are national patterns in the demography of
(non-co-residential) grandparental care influenced by
family policy at national level?
What difference does the nation state make?
What is it about the nation state that makes a
difference?
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Indicators
Policies
• Maternity, Paternity and
Parental Rights
• Leave to care for a sick
child
• “Family Friendly” Labour
Market Policies
• Child benefits
• Childcare and education
entitlements and services
• Retirement policies
• Long-term care policies
Family and Gender
Cultures and Structures
Labour Market Cultures
and Structures
• Attitudes to child care
• Gender role attitudes
• Satisfaction with public
support for families
• Use of child care services
• Use of elder care services
• Working patterns of
women and mothers by:
• age of children
• number of working
hours
• marital status
• Couples in breadwinnercarer/part-time carer
and dual-full- timeworker arrangements
• Gender pay gap
GRANDPARENTAL CHILDCARE
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Method
 In countries such as Sweden and Denmark (and to a lesser
extent France) parents are expected to work full time,
formal childcare is widely available and there is generous
maternity pay and support for mothers who stay at home. In
these countries grandmothers play a far more limited role in
providing intensive childcare, but are still significantly
involved in providing occasional and less intensive care for
grandchildren
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Method
 In Portugal, Spain, Italy and Romania, where welfare
payments to parents and mothers at home are limited and
there is little formal childcare and few opportunities for
mothers to work part-time, grandparents provide a good
deal of intensive childcare. Also in these countries mothers
who do work often do so for 40+ hours per week, and since
there is little affordable childcare, there is greater reliance
on intensive childcare by grandmothers. With the exception
of Romania, in these countries there is less of a role for
grandparents providing occasional or less intensive care
without the parents present
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Method
 In the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, public support for
families is less universal, and childcare coverage is patchy and
often provided by the market rather than the state, and the norm
is that women work part time. Here grandparents play a middling
role in both intensive childcare and occasional/less intensive
childcare. In these countries, a smaller proportion of those
mothers in full time work do so for long hours, leading to less
reliance on intensive childcare by grandmothers. In the
Netherlands, which has by far the highest proportion of mothers
working part time and very few mothers working full time and
where formal childcare is widespread, there is very little intensive
childcare by grandparents.
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Grandparenting policy regimes
 No assumption of grandparental care
 (Denmark, Sweden and to a lesser extent France)
 Grandparental care is assumed (explicit or
implicit):
 (Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain)
 State policies are neutral
 (Germany, Netherlands, UK)
 But policy matrix is not the only factor
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Findings - Multivariate
5. Conclusions
 There is need both an understanding of demographic, policy,
cultural-structural factors to explain variations in national
patterns of grandparent childcare.
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Findings - Multivariate
5. Conclusions
Younger grandmothers who are fit, healthy and with younger
grandchildren – the most likely to be providing childcare for
their grandchildren – are the very women who governments
across Europe are aiming to encourage to stay in paid work for
longer in order to increase productivity and pay for their
pensions, health and social care in later life. Their vital but
invisible role in providing childcare, whether intensive, regular
and/or occasional, is likely to conflict with their own ability to
self finance their own old age, especially as widow’s benefits in
both state and employers pensions are eroded.
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Findings - Multivariate
5. Conclusions
Given that grandmothers aged 50 to 69 who are not in
paid work are the most likely to provide childcare, the
plans of European governments to extend retirement
ages and increase female labour force participation at
older ages are likely to conflict with grandparents role
in providing childcare. This will have significant
implications for labour market participation by
younger mothers, and for pension acquisition and the
financial security of mid-life women.
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Metadata
 Will be published as a web resource (2013)
 Compares eleven widely differing European countries on
over 100 indicators at a single point in time [2008]
 Each country has three Excel ‘books’, one for each set of
indicators (policy, family & gender, labour force)
 + Tables of cross-eleven-country analyses
 Summaries of policies will be in the report, and some
comparative tables
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Our reports
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