The demography of grandparenthood: the role of family histories

Arpino, Bruno; Gumà, Jordi; Julià, Albert

The demography of grandparenthood: the role of family histories

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Arpino, B, Gumà, J, Julià, A. The demography of grandparenthood: the role of family histories. 2017. handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10230/30802

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Abstract

The role of grandparents is increasingly important in ageing countries. We use a life course approach aiming at assessing the association between individual family histories (partnership and fertility histories) and grandparenthood-related outcomes (being grandparent, number of grandchildren, having at least one young grandchild). We use retrospective data collected in the third wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), called SHARELIFE, and sequence analyses to cluster individuals according to similar patterns of family histories. Family histories show a considerable degree of heterogeneity with respect to timing, quantum and probability of experiencing certain events. This heterogeneity is reflected in strong variability in the probability of having (young) grandchildren and their number at different ages across the clusters of family trajectories. Our results provide a detailed demographic profile of grandparenthood and have important implications for the understanding of current and possible future developments of the grandparent role.