Search

Objectives. To understand how caring for grandchildren affects the physical and mental health of grandparents in Taiwan. Method. Grandparents aged 50 and older from 4 waves of the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (1993–2003, n = 3,711) were divided into 7 categories based on living arrangement and caregiving history. Generalized estimation equations controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and disease status were used to estimate the relationship between caregiving and 4 outcomes: self-rated physical health, mobility limitation, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms. Results. Compared with noncaregivers, long-term multigenerational caregivers were more likely to report better self-rated health, higher life satisfaction, and fewer depressive symptoms. We found some evidence of reduced mobility limitations for both skipped-generation and nonresidential caregivers relative to noncaregivers. The associations in self-rated health and depressive symptoms were more pronounced in long-term caregivers than among those who recently started caregiving. Discussion. Improvements in self-rated health and mobility associated with caregiving support our hypothesis that caring for grandchildren can be beneficial for grandparents in Taiwan, especially for long-term multigenerational caregivers. Comparing Taiwanese grandparents across different types of caregiving shows that the associations of grandparent caregiving with health vary by living arrangement and duration. However, these findings may not be causal because caregiving and health outcomes were observed simultaneously in our data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous research on the health effects of caring for grandchildren has had variable findings, including both positive and negative effects on the health of grandparents. The estimated effects of caregiving may be affected by selection, with the health of grandparent affecting the likelihood of undertaking caregiving. The health effects of caregiving also likely differ according to the cultural motivations for caregiving by grandparents. This paper assesses whether selection into caring for grandchildren affects the estimated effects of caregiving on the health of Taiwanese grandparents. We used four waves (1993-2003) of the Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan to estimate the effect of grandparent caregiving on self-rated health, mobility, and depression. To control for unobserved selection into caregiving, we employed time-varying instrumental variables (the number of grandchildren and marital status of adult children) in addition to person fixed effects. After adjusting for baseline differences, caregivers had better self-rated health, fewer mobility limitations, and fewer depressive symptoms compared to the non-caregivers, which suggest evidence of health improvement for grandparents. Instrumental variable analysis showed that caring for grandchildren was endogenously determined with grandparents' mobility limitations, and grandparent caregivers benefited from a significant reduction in the number of mobility limitations. Our finding suggests that caring for grandchildren can be beneficial for the health of Taiwanese grandparents and supports our hypothesis that a culturally expected role of caregiving results in role enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]