Intensity and changes in grandparental caregiving: Exploring the link to loneliness in Europe

This study investigates the impact of the overall intensity and changes in grandparental caregiving on loneliness in grandparents in European countries. Data from waves 5 to 8 of the Survey on Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) were used (Nindividuals = 30,896 and Nobservations = 48,562). We included grandparents (aged 50 years and over) with at least one grandchild at the beginning of the study. The analyses reveal that any intensity of grandparental care decreases the risk of loneliness. When looking at changes in grandparental care the results show that stable caregiving roles appeared to reduce loneliness, while starting to provide grandparental care makes grandparents more vulnerable to loneliness. In conclusion, our findings underscore that consistent grandparental care is important for grandparents in mitigating loneliness, highlighting the importance of sustained caregiving roles over fluctuations in caregiving intensity.

Open Access funding provided by University of the Basque Country (Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea-UPV/EHU). The first author also is grateful for the financial support of the Department of Education, University and Research of the Basque Government, through the pre-doctoral scholarship [PRE_2020_1_0016]; and the EGONLABUR-2023 scholarship for a visiting scholar stays from the same department [EP_2023_1_0020]. The second author acknowledges financial support from The Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia/Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [PID2019-105986GB-C22 and D2021-131763A-100] and from the Department of Education of the Basque Government under research grant [IT-1508-22].