Grandchild care and well-being: Gender differences in mental health effects of caregiving grandparents
Open accessAbstract
Objectives The literature on the gendered differences of mental health as a result of grandchild care has shown mixed results. Research on grandchild care further suggests that nonresidential grandchild care improves mental health outcomes, while residential grandchild care arrangements decrease mental health outcomes in grandparents. The moderating or buffering role of social engagement remains understudied in the grandchild care-mental health relationship. This study examines mental health effect differences between caregiving grandmothers and grandfathers and the moderating effects of social engagement. Methods Using 2002-2012 data from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults aged 50 and older, I examine the mental health effects of grandchild care and the moderating effect of social engagement in fixed effects models. Results Grandfathers experience particularly worsened mental health outcomes when providing grandchild care in a skipped-generation household. Both grandmothers and grandfathers experience mental health improvements from increased social engagement. Social engagement, particularly for grandmothers, serves as a buffer or produces role enhancement for grandmothers in skipped-generation care arrangements. Discussion Nonresidential and residential grandchild care affects mental health outcomes differently for grandmothers and grandfathers. However, social engagement consistently serves as a buffer or mental health impro…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Family, friend, and community social engagement protects against mental health issues for both genders of grandparent caregivers, but especially for grandmother caregivers.
“Family, friend, and community social engagement protects against mental health issues for both genders of grandparent caregivers, but especially for grandmother caregivers (Notter, 2022)”
From Grandparent Caregiving and Epigenetic Aging among Midlife and Older Adults in the United States (2026) · cites this paper as Notter, 2022
Cites
Goode, W. J. (1960) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2092933 · Cited by 2,454 · cited 1× · see citing works
“This research is consistent with the role strain hypothesis, in which grandparents who serve as caregivers on top of other roles, such as spouse, coworker, or friend, experience negative mental and physical health outcomes (Goode, 1960; Rozario et al., 2004).”
ResultLeigh-Hunt, N., Bagguley, D., Bash, K., Turner, V., Turnbull, S., Valtorta, N., & Caan, W. (2017) · Public Health · doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2017.07.035 · Cited by 2,158 · see citing works
6/Use of the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale with Older Adults
Sawyer Radloff, L., & Teri, L. (1986) · Clinical Gerontologist · doi:10.1300/j018v05n01_06 · Cited by 768 · see citing works
The Health Implications of Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren in China
Chen, F., & Liu, G. (2012) · The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences · doi:10.1093/geronb/gbr132 · Cited by 378 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Further, Chen & Liu (2012) argue that when grandchild care is less intensive, the benefits of the role’s emotional rewards and social support are highlighted and improve health; meanwhile a heavier care responsibility worsens health.”
BackgroundLiu, L.-J., & Guo, Q. (2007) · Quality of Life Research · doi:10.1007/s11136-007-9250-0 · Cited by 242 · see citing works
Rozario, P. A., Morrow-Howell, N., & Hinterlong, J. E. (2004) · Research on Aging · doi:10.1177/0164027504264437 · Cited by 174 · see citing works
Effects of Retirement and Grandchild Care on Depressive Symptoms
Szinovacz, M. E., & Davey, A. (2006) · The International Journal of Aging and Human Development · doi:10.2190/8q46-gjx4-m2vm-w60v · Cited by 73 · cited 3× · see citing works
“They perform a continuation of their maternal role, while grandfathers have less experience interacting with children and expect to retire un-“spoiled” (Szinovacz & Davey, 2006).”
BackgroundMethodInfluential
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Grandparent Caregiving and Epigenetic Aging among Midlife and Older Adults in the United States
Bhat, A. C., Trexberg, K. M., Apsley, A. T., Almeida, D. M., & Shalev, I. (2026) · The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · doi:10.1093/geronb/gbaf255 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Family, friend, and community social engagement protects against mental health issues for both genders of grand-parent caregivers, but especially for grandmother caregivers (Notter, 2022); whereas the grandfather caregivers’ mental health is more impacted by living with a spouse (Park, 2009).”
- Authors
- Notter, I. R.
- Affiliations
- Brown University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Notter, Isabelle R
- ORCID
- Notter, Isabelle R
- Venue
- The Journals of Gerontology: Series B
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2021-09-11
- Volume
- 77
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1294-1304
- ISSN
- 1079-5014 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-5368
- PMC
- PMC9255931
- OpenAlex
- W3197824641
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3
- FWCI
- 4.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model (vor)
- Locations
- The Journals of Gerontology Series B (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (P2C HD041020)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
- Keywords
- grandchild care, grandparents, mental health, gender differences, social engagement, skipped-generation households, role enhancement, older adults, caregiving
- MeSH terms
- Grandparents, Aged, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Sex Factors, Intergenerational Relations, Social Participation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
