Child Care and Child Births: The Role of Grandparents in the Netherlands
Open accessAbstract
This study explored the involvement of grandparents in the care for young children and its effect on subsequent child births in dual‐earner families, using data on 898 Dutch men and women aged 18–49 from the Netherlands' Kinship Panel Study. Three theoretical perspectives were used to develop hypotheses: (a) needs and opportunities, (b) normative preferences, and (c) gendered involvement of grandparents. The findings showed that needs and opportunities informed involvement of grandparents but that the availability of formal child care did not predict grandparents' involvement. Maternal grandparents were more likely to provide child care than paternal grandparents, and grandmothers were more likely to do so than grandfathers. Involvement of both maternal and paternal grandparents in turn increased the likelihood of additional child births. The authors conclude that grandparental child care may be part of an emerging reproductive strategy. Implications of these findings for the theoretical approaches used are discussed.
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Higher fertility rates are linked to help with childcare from parents or parents-in-law.
“2) help with childcare from parents or parents-in-law”
From Division of domestic labour and lowest-low fertility in South Korea (2017) · cites this paper as Thomese and Liefbroer 2013
The supplied passages identify the paper and its topic but contain no findings about whether childcare help from parents or parents-in-law is linked to higher fertility. Searches for grandparental childcare and subsequent births returned only the title and publication metadata, so the claimed association cannot be verified from our copy. (LLM, conf=0.70)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredHelp from both parents and parents-in-law is positively related to the likelihood that Dutch people with at least one child will have an additional child.
“Thomese and Liefbroer (2013) analyse longitudinal data while controlling for the availability of formal childcare and find that help from both parents and parents-in-law is positively related to the likelihood that Dutch people with at least one child will have an additional child.”
From Division of domestic labour and lowest-low fertility in South Korea (2017) · cites this paper as Thomese and Liefbroer 2013
The available passages under the Abstract label contain bibliographic metadata, not the study’s methods or findings. Searches for parents and parents-in-law, additional births, longitudinal data, and formal childcare found no passage addressing the attributed result. (LLM, conf=0.72)
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Cites
The theory of planned behavior
Ajzen, I. (1991) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t · Cited by 90,587 · see citing works
Work and family research in the first decade of the 21st century
Bianchi, S. M., & Milkie, M. A. (2010) · Journal of Marriage and Family · doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00726.x · Cited by 1,145 · see citing works
Advances in development reverse fertility declines
Myrskylä, M., Kohler, H.-P., & Billari, F. C. (2009) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature08230 · Cited by 782 · see citing works
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Division of domestic labour and lowest-low fertility in South Korea
Kim, E. H.-W. (2017) · Demographic Research · doi:10.4054/demres.2017.37.24 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
- Authors
- Thomese, F., & Liefbroer, A. C.
- Affiliations
- VU University Amsterdam
- Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NL)
- ORCID
- Liefbroer, Aart C.
- Venue
- Journal of Marriage and Family
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-03-14
- Volume
- 75
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 403-421
- ISSN
- 0022-2445 (ISSN-L)
- 1741-3737
- OpenAlex
- W1496800171
- Cited by
- 124
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 24.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.rug.nl
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Marriage and the Family (publishedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- KNAW Research Portal (The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) (submittedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
- Keywords
- grandparents, childbirth, fertility, dual-earner families, formal childcare, maternal grandparents, paternal grandparents, reproductive strategies, normative preferences
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