Regular provision of grandchild care and participation in social activities

Abstract

A considerable proportion of older people regularly care for their grandchildren. This role in later life may subtract time and energies from participation in social activities, which are considered fundamental for active ageing. Using an instrumental variable approach on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we test whether regular grandchild care reduces participation in social activities. Our results show a significant negative effect on the number of activities in which grandmothers participate. When considering the activities separately by type, we find a negative effect on engagement in educational or training courses for both grandfathers and grandmothers, while a negative effect on volunteering and participating in political or community-related organization is additionally found only for grandmothers. These results stimulate the debate on active ageing to consider possible competition between grandchild care and participation in social activities.