Becoming a grandparent decreases depression
Becoming a grandparent increases depression
China Czech Republic Estonia Italy Spain Slovenia
Denmark Netherlands Sweden Belgium France England
Dr Yang also investigated the importance of intensity of grandchild caring. The findings suggest that both intensive caring (more than 40 hours per week) and non-intensive caring (less than 40 hours per week) provide a protective effect for depression in grandparents. Both grandfathers and grandmothers benefited, but country matters; compared to grandfathers who did not provide any grandchild care, grandfathers who provided non-intensive care in China and Sweden were less likely to report depressive symptoms, as were grandfathers who provided a lot of care in Italy. In China, Denmark and Sweden, grandmothers who provided non-intensive care were less likely to report depressive symptoms compared to their counterparts who provided no care. In Italy, Spain, Sweden and Denmark grandmothers who provided intensive care were also less likely to have depressive symptoms. In conclusion, becoming a grandparent has a protective effect against depression among grandparents in relatively lower income countries such as China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Spain and Slovenia. By contrast, becoming a grandparent increases depressive symptoms in countries with relatively higher incomes, such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, France and England. Providing non-intensive grandchild care is beneficial for grandparents’ depressive symptoms in China and Sweden, whilst providing intensive grandchild care reduces the depressive symptoms among grandmothers in Italy, Spain, Sweden and Denmark. Dr Yang commented: “Policy decision makers need to be aware of the increasing importance of grandparents in providing childcare for their grandchildren. Family and other policies involving older people need to take into account the impact of grandparenting on grandparents’ health. Higher income countries in particular should investigate policy instruments that might buffer the negative impact of becoming a grandparent.” She continues: “Particular attention should be devoted to grandmothers, who are more likely than grandfathers to experience depression when becoming grandparents.”
Further reading
CPC at IPC2021 From 5-10 December, CPC members attended the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) International Population Conference (IPC2021).
The IPC is the world’s largest scientific conference on population and demography, bringing together researchers, policymakers and practitioners from a range of disciplines and from across the globe, to present and discuss the latest research on a broad range of contemporary population issues. Given the Covid-19 pandemic, IPC2021 was a completely virtual conference, hosted by the Indian Association for the Study of Population (IASP). The conference offered around-theclock sessions to enable participants from around the world to present new research and meet with colleagues. All sessions were also available as on-demand video recordings. On Wednesday 8 December, CPC Modelling Strand leader Jakub Bijak chaired a Research Leader session, sponsored by his QuantMig project and the University of Southampton. The session allowed participants to hear presentations on ‘Quantifying uncertain migration scenarios’ with presentations from QuantMig members. The MigrantLife project, led by CPC Co-Director Hill Kulu, also had a strong presence at the conference, as did CPC’s fertility and ageing experts. You can see all of our members’ contributions, with links to their abstracts on the CPC website. Full details of the conference are on the IUSSP website. With the support of the Australian Population Association, the next International Population Conference will be held in Brisbane in 2025.
Being a grandparent and depression: how does it differ across England, Europe and China? (CPC Policy Briefing 62) The impact of grandparenting on late-life depression in England, Europe and China (CPC webinar, YouTube)
14
15
