Does Grandchild Caregiving Affect Older Adults’ Cognition and Well-being Beyond Work? [Seed Funding]
As labor force participation of parents and the cost of formal child care increases, grandparents step in to take grandchild care responsibilities. Yet, very frequently, grandchild care takes place in parallel with formal work responsibilities, raising the question to what extent grandchild caregiving affects grandparents’ cognitive functioning and well-being above and beyond the effects of work.
In this interdisciplinary project, we follow (part-time) working grandparents across days on which they provide grandchild care, across non-caregiving working days and across non-caregiving off-work days to understand to what extent caregiving and work responsibilities show equally beneficial or detrimental effects on grandparents’ cognition and well-being.
Supplementary (non-custodial) grandchild care was proposed as a meaningful stimulating activity that benefits older adults’ cognition and well-being. Yet, past findings on the effects of grandparenting on grandparents’ cognition and well-being are actually mixed. Possibly, this is because the work context is not considered, and thus the effects of grandparenting become confounded with the effects of working. Furthermore, the effect of grandparenting and work on cognition and well-being might not just be positive or negative: It could depend on the types of activities performed while caregiving (boosting vs. tiring activities), or on the match between the work activities performed (demands and resources) and the person (abilities, motives), as well as their interplay. In this project, we thus take a more comprehensive perspective by including detailed information on both, grandparenting and grandparents’ work context and activities, while also studying these effects at the daily level, in an ecologically valid context.
The research team
Flavia Chereches is a PhD candidate at the Department of Developmental Psychology. In her PhD project she studies the role of grandparenting for successful ageing.
Dr. Dorien Kooij is a Full professor at the Department of Human Resources Studies. Her research expertise is on successful aging at work.
Dr. Nicola Ballhausen is an Assistant professor at the Department of Developmental Psychology. Her research expertise is on cognition and stress across the lifespan.
Dr. Gabriel Olaru is an Assistant professor at the Department of Developmental psychology. His research expertise includes well-being in older age as well as advanced statistical skills.
Dr. Yvonne Brehmer is a Full professor at the Department of Developmental psychology. Her research expertise is on predictors of individual differences in memory functioning and successful ageing.
Cross-cutting themes
The Herbert Simon Research Institute for Health, Well-being, and Adaptiveness is a research center devoted to carrying out excellent, state of the art research in order to contribute to healthy and resilient people. We have selected three themes, which involve the collaboration between various Departments and address actual themes in need of both fundamental and applied research.