Abstract
Increased life expectancy and reduced child mortality in most countries around the world indicate that more and more people now live to be grandparents and experience an extended period of grandparenthood. Becoming a grandparent is associated with many important changes in relationships, life styles, and activities (Crosnoe and Elder 2002; Elder 1994; King et al. 1998; Uhlenberg and Kirby 1998). In many societies, grandparents provide care and assistance to their grandchildren. These levels of care range from occasional helping to full-time custodial care. At the micro level, the amount of grandparent caregiving is often driven by the needs of the parents. Examples include weekend babysitting to allow adult children some relief from parenting, or surrogate parenting as a response to a crisis situation in which the parents are unable to fulfill their parental responsibilities. At the macro level, social norms and structural contexts influence the extent of grandparent caregiving in different settings. For example, in the United States, most grandparents do not provide routine care for grandchildren, conforming to a norm of noninterference in intergenerational relationships (Cherlin and Furstenberg 1986). In an East Asian country such as China, where Confucian heritage prescribes strong ties between parents and their children throughout life, it is normative for grandparents to provide care on a consistent basis for their grandchildren (Chen et al. 2000; Hermalin et al. 1998; Unger 1993).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The 1989 wave was excluded because it only collected information on childcare if grandparents lived in the household. If the child was cared for elsewhere, the number of hours of caregiving is known, but not whether the child was being cared for by grandparents or not, because that is included in one crude category, “in the home of a relative.” Because our goal here is to document the scope of grandparent caregiving both in and outside the household, the 1989 wave is not included here.
- 2.
The proportion of children who are cared for in the household is not shown in Fig. 10.4 because it is the residual category.
References
Bian, F., Logan, J. R., & Bian, Y. (1998). Intergenerational relations in Urban China: Proximity, contact and help to parents. Demography, 35, 115–124.
Chen, F. (2004). The division of labor between generations of women in rural China. Social Science Research, 33, 557–580.
Chen, F. (2005). Residential patterns of parents and their married children in contemporary China: A life course approach. Population Research and Policy Review, 24, 125–148.
Chen, F., Short, S. E., & Entwisle, B. (2000). The impact of grandparental proximity on maternal childcare in China. Population Research and Policy Review, 19, 571–590.
Cherlin, A. J., & Furstenberg, F. F. (1986). The new American grandparent: A place in the family, a life apart. New York: Basic Books.
Crosnoe, R., & Elder, G. H. (2002). Life course transitions, the generational stake and grandparent-grandchild relationships. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 64, 1089–1096.
Davis-Friedmann, D. (1991). Long lives: Chinese elderly and the communist revolution. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Davis, D., & Harrell, S. (1993). Introduction: The impact of Post-Mao reforms on family life. In D. Davis & S. Harrell (Eds.), Chinese families in the post Mao era (pp. 1–24). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Elder, G. H. (1994). Time, human aging, and social change: Perspectives on the life course. Social Psychology Quarterly, 57, 4–15.
Greenhalgh, S. (1984). Networks and their nodes: Urban society on Taiwan. The China Quarterly, 99, 529–552.
Guo, Z. (2000). Family patterns. In X. Peng & Z. Guo (Eds.), The changing population of China (pp. 98–111). Oxford: Blackwell.
Hermalin, A. I., Roan, C., & Perez, A. (1998). The emerging role of grandparents in Asia. In Elderly in Asia research report series no. 98–52. Population Studies Center, University of Michigan.
King, V., Russell, S. T., & Elder, G. H. (1998). Grandparenting in family systems: An ecological perspective. In M. E. Szinovacz (Ed.), Handbook on grandparenthood (pp. 53–69). Westport: Greenwood Press.
Logan, J. R., & Bian, F. (1999). Family values and coresidence with married children in urban China. Social Forces, 77, 1253–1283.
Logan, J. R., Bian, F., & Bian, Y. (1998). Tradition and change in the urban Chinese family: The case of living arrangements. Social Forces, 76, 851–882.
Parish, W. L., & Whyte, M. K. (1978). Village and family life in contemporary China. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Rossi, A. S., & Rossi, P. H. (1990). Of human bonding: Parent–child relations across the life course. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Short, S. E., Chen, F., Entwisle, B., & Zhai, F. (2002). Maternal work and time with preschool children: A multi-method approach. Population and Development Review, 28, 38–57.
Uhlenberg, P., & Kirby, J. B. (1998). Grandparenthood over time: Historical and demographic trends. In M. E. Szinovacz (Ed.), Handbook on grandparenthood (pp. 23–39). Westport: Greenwood Press.
Unger, J. (1993). Urban families in the eighties: An analysis of Chinese surveys. In D. Davis & S. Harrell (Eds.), Chinese families in the post Mao era (pp. 25–49). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Whyte, M. K. (1996). The Chinese family and economic development: Obstacle or engine. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 45, 1–30.
Whyte, M. K. (2003). China’s revolutions and intergenerational relations. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan.
Whyte, M. K., & Xu, Q. (2003). Support for aging parents from daughters versus sons. In M. K. Whyte (Ed.), China’s revolutions and intergenerational relations (pp. 167–196). Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan.
Zeng, Y. (1986). Changes in family structure in China: A simulation study. Population and Development Review, 12, 675–703.
Zeng, Y. (1991). Family dynamics in China: A life table analysis. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chen, F. (2014). Patterns of Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren in China. In: Poston, Jr., D., Yang, W., Farris, D. (eds) The Family and Social Change in Chinese Societies. The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis, vol 35. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7445-2_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7445-2_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-7444-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-7445-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)