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Custodial grandparenting (i.e. raising grandchildren on a full-time basis) is a global phenomenon. Despite the hardships associated with 24/7 custodial care, grandparents continue to invest in their grandchildren. Why they do so is a matter of much conjecture. For example, it has been posited that grandparents assume custodial care of their grandchildren for reasons of necessity, altruism, aged-care reciprocity, or cultural continuity. This study examines the often overlooked issue of grandparent enjoyment as a motivating force behind custodial grandparenting caregiving investment. The results of our analysis of 88 completed Grandparent Needs, Wellbeing and Health Surveys determined that custodial grandparents’ investiture in their grandchildren is influenced by three types of enjoyment, namely those derived from engagement in the child-centred nurturance of an at-risk grandchild, dyadic engagement in shared activities with their grandchild, and the personal grandparent-centred pleasure benefits to be had from fulfilling a grandcarer role. This study additionally reveals that informal custodial grandparents experience lower levels of closeness to their grandchild/ren, satisfaction with their grandparenting role, and assessment of their state of health than do formal (legal) custodial grandparents. The need to educate custodial grandparents of the potential health benefits to be had from investiture in their grandchildren is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the poor mental health results in custodial grandparents. Topics include increase in Australian government mental health assistance, disruptive family processes which predict higher manifestations of mental ill health in grandparents, and Thematic analysis in grandparents caregiving experiences.

Across human cultures, grandparents make a valued contribution to the health of their families and communities. Moreover, evidence is gathering that grandparents have a positive impact on the development of grandchildren in contemporary industrialized societies. A broad range of factors that influence the likelihood grandparents will invest in their grandchildren has been explored by disciplines as diverse as sociology, economics, psychology and evolutionary biology. To progress toward an encompassing framework, this study will include biological relatedness between grandparents and grandchildren, a factor central to some discipline's theoretical frameworks (e.g., evolutionary biology), next to a wide range of other factors in an analysis of grandparental investment in contemporary Europe. This study draws on data collected in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe from 11 European countries that included 22,967 grandparent–child dyads. Grandparents reported biological relatedness, and grandparental investment was measured as the frequency of informal childcare. Biological and non-biological grandparents differed significantly in a variety of individual, familial and area-level characteristics. Furthermore, many other economic, sociological, and psychological factors also influenced grandparental investment. When they were controlled, biological grandparents, relative to non-biological grandparents, were more likely to invest heavily, looking after their grandchildren almost daily or weekly. Paradoxically, however, they were also more likely to invest nothing at all. We discuss the methodological and theoretical implications of these findings across disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From changing diapers and minding the kids when school is out to providing support when they set fire to the carpet, grandparents can be invaluable to have around. What motivates grandparents to lend a hand? Several disciplines have offered answers. The most important accounts come from life-history theory and evolutionary psychology, sociology, and economics. These accounts exist side-by-side, but there is little theoretical integration among them. But regardless of whether grandparental investment is traced back to ancestral selection pressure or attributed to an individual grandparent's values or norms, one important question is, What impact does it have in industrialized, low-fertility, low-mortality societies? We briefly review the initial evidence concerning the impact of grandparental investment in industrialized societies and conclude that in difficult circumstances, grandparents can provide the support that safeguards their grandchildren's development. Additional cross-disciplinary research to examine the effects of intergenerational transfers in our evolutionarily unique environment of grandparenthood is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This response outlines more reasons why we need the integrative framework of grandparental investments and intergenerational transfers that we advocated in the target article. We discusses obstacles -- from misconceptions to poor measures - that stand in the way of such a framework and of a better understanding of the effects of grandparenting in the developed world. We highlight new research directions that have emerged from the commentaries, and we end by discussing some of the things in our target article about which we may have been wrong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]