Seminar on Intergenerational Relationships

The University of Oxford, Department of Sociology has invited POP researcher Valeria Bordone to give a seminar entitled "Intergenerational relationships: Does grandparental childcare pay off?". The Semiar is open to public and will take place on Monday, 14 October 2013, 12.30-2pm at the University.

Abstract

The role of grandparents has become central in sociology, economics, demography and psychology, due to the unprecedented grandparent-(grand)child overlapping length of life. We examine whether the provision of childcare helps older adults maintain better cognitive functioning using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Descriptive evidence shows that intensively engaged grandparents have lower cognitive scores than the others. We show that this result is attributable to background characteristics and not to childcare per se. Using an instrumental variable approach, we find that providing childcare has a positive effect on verbal fluency. These findings point to the inclusion of grandparenting among other cognitively stimulating social activities, but also raise further questions. For example, does grandparenting affect participation in social activities? In that case, benefits of childcare may be reduced by negative (indirect) effects due to lowered engagement in social activities. These results contribute to the debate on active ageing.

Date: 12:30 on Mon, 14 Oct 2013

Venue:
Seminar Room G, Manor Road Building,Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3UQ

For more information please visit the Department website

Last edited: 09 October 2013