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Child care by grandparents: changes between 1992 and 2006

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2014

TEUN GEURTS ,
THEO VAN TILBURG ,
ANNE-RIGT POORTMAN  and
PEARL A. DYKSTRA
TEUN GEURTS*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Erasmus UniversityRotterdam, The Netherlands.
THEO VAN TILBURG
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Erasmus UniversityRotterdam, The Netherlands.
ANNE-RIGT POORTMAN
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology/Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
PEARL A. DYKSTRA
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
*
Address for correspondence: Teun Geurts, Ministry of Security and Justice, Research and Documentation Centre, P.O. Box 20301, 2500 EH, The Hague, The Netherlands. E-mail: t.geurts@minvenj.nl
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Abstract

This study considers changes in child care by grandparents between 1992 and 2006 in relation to changes in mothers' need for and grandparents' opportunity to provide child care. Data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam are used to compare two cohorts of Dutch grandparents aged 58–68 (N1992=181; N2006=350). Multi-level regression analysis shows that the probability that grandparents care for their adult daughters' children (N1992=261; N2006=484) increased from 0.23 to 0.41. The increase can be ascribed to higher maternal employment rates, growth in single motherhood, reduced travel time and a decline in the number of adult children. The increase would have been higher if the employment rate of grandparents had not risen.

Keywords

child caregrandparents

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Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 35 , Issue 6 , July 2015 , pp. 1318 - 1334
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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