CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 685Intergenerational Family Dynamics and CaregivingFamily Dynamics and RelationshipsIntergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies

Intergenerational Ties in Context: Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren in China

Open access
Chen, F., Liu, G., Mair, C. A.·2011·Social Forces
DOI 10.1093/sf/sor012PMC PMC3337769
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Guided by theories and empirical research on intergenerational relationships, we examine the phenomenon of grandparents caring for grandchildren in contemporary China. Using a longitudinal dataset (China Health and Nutrition Survey), we document a high level of structural and functional solidarity in grandparent-grandchildren relationships. Intergenerational solidarity is indicated by a high rate of coresidence between grandchildren and grandparents, a sizable number of skipped-generation households (no parent present), extensive childcare involvement by non-coresidential grandparents, and a large amount of care provided by coresidential grandparents. Multivariate analysis further suggests that grandparents' childcare load is adaptive to familial needs, as reflected by the characteristics of the household, household members, and work activities of the mothers.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/sf/sor012

Cites

74 of 74 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

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?

  • Intergenerational solidarity is seen in extensive childcare provided by grandparents, either through coresidence (including skipped-generation arrangements) or support provided by noncoresident grandparents.

    “Intergenerational solidarity is seen in extensive childcare provided by grandparents, in the form of either coresidence (including skippedgeneration arrangements, with no parent present) or support provided by noncoresident grandparents (Chen et al. 2011).”

    From The Social and Sociological Consequences of China's One-Child Policy (2021) · cites this paper as Chen et al. 2011

  • With only one child, parents are making more of an effort to invest in their children's education and to pay for their housing and other expenses.

    “With only one child, parents are making more of an effort to invest in their children's education and to pay for their housing and other expenses (Davis & Sensenbrenner 2000, Zhai & Gao 2010, Chen et al. 2011).”

    From The Social and Sociological Consequences of China's One-Child Policy (2021) · cites this paper as Chen et al. 2011

    The Results mention that many families have one child under China’s one-child policy, while the Discussion and Conclusion address grandparents’ childcare. Searches for education, housing, and financial investment found no passage saying that parents of only children make greater efforts to fund education, housing, or other expenses. The claim is therefore not verifiable from our copy of this paper. (LLM, conf=0.76)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 76 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Ikels Charlotte Szinovacz Maximiliane E 1998 Grandparenthood in Cross-Cultural Perspective 40 52 Handbook on Grandparenthood Greenwood Press
  2. Silverstein Merril Giarrusso Roseann Bengtson Vern L Szinovacz Maximiliane E 1998 Intergenerational Solidarity and the Grandparent Role 144 158 Handbook on Grandparenthood Greenwood Press
  3. Szinovacz Maximiliane E Szinovacz Maximiliane E 1998 Grandparent Research: Past, Present, and Future 1 20 Handbook on Grandparenthood Greenwood Press
  4. Williams Norma Torrez Diana J Szinovacz Maximiliane E 1998 Grandparenthood among Hispanics 87 96 Handbook on Grandparenthood Greenwood Press
  5. Zeng Yi George Linda 2001 Extremely Rapid Ageing and the Living Arrangements of the Elderly: The Case of China Population Bulletin of the United Nations 42/43 255 287

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Chen, F., Liu, G., & Mair, C. A.
Affiliations
  • University of Maryland, College Park (US)
  • North Carolina State University (US)
  • University of Maryland, Baltimore County (US)
Corresponding author
Chen, F.
ORCID
Venue
Social Forces
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2011-12-01
Volume
90
Issue
2
Pages
571-594
ISSN
  • 0037-7732 (ISSN-L)
  • 1534-7605
DOI
10.1093/sf/sor012
PMC
PMC3337769
OpenAlex
W2065101978
Cited by
685
References
76
Citations by year
2026: 69 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 70 · 2022: 56 · 2021: 77 · 2020: 109 · 2019: 57 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 8
FWCI
20.36
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Social Forces (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Maryland Shared Open Access Repository (USMAI Consortium) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
  • Duke Law Scholarship Repository (Duke University) (submittedVersion)
  • Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (University of Maryland College Park)
Funders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (K01HD047369)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
Keywords
intergenerational ties, grandparent-grandchild relationships, grandparents caring for grandchildren, co-residence, skipped-generation households, child care, intergenerational solidarity, family structure, maternal employment, China

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