Volume 37 - Article 29 | Pages 917–928  

Who becomes a grandparent – and when? Educational differences in the chances and timing of grandparenthood

By Jan Skopek, Thomas Leopold

Abstract

Background: Despite recent advances, the demographic understanding of grandparenthood remains limited.

Objective: Our study examines educational differences in the transition to grandparenthood. Comparing East and West Germany, we analyze educational differences in a) the chance of becoming a grandparent, and b) the timing of grandparenthood for both men and women.

Methods: We used fertility data across three family generations (German Ageing Survey, N = 2,434 men and women born 1933‒1948) and methods of survival time analysis to study educational gradients in the transition to grandparenthood.

Results: We found a strong educational gradient in the chances of grandparenthood among West German women: Lower-educated women’s chances of becoming a grandmother were similar to higher-educated women’s chances of becoming a mother.

Conclusions: Our findings have implications for research on multi-generational social mobility and on the consequences of grandparenthood.

Contribution: Our study is the first to analyze how the transition to grandparenthood is socially stratified.

Author’s Affiliation

• Jan Skopek - Trinity College Dublin, Ireland EMAIL
• Thomas Leopold - Universität zu Köln, Germany EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Click, collect, compare: Evaluating a nonprobability web survey for family demography
Volume 54 - Article 42

A parallel kinship universe? A replication of Kolk et al. (2023) with Dutch register data on kinship networks
Volume 52 - Article 28

KINMATRIX: A new data resource for studies of families and kinship
Volume 51 - Article 25

Similar articles in Demographic Research

Digital matches and marital roles: Online partner selection and nontraditional housework in Japan
Volume 55 - Article 28    | Keywords: gender, housework, Japan, Japan, marriage, online dating

Does the women’s employment–fertility U-shape emerge at the local level? Evidence from Italian municipalities
Volume 55 - Article 27    | Keywords: female employment, fertility, gender-equilibrium framework, Italy, local demography, local demography, low fertility

Educational pairings, partners’ economic resources, and second births in Austria
Volume 55 - Article 26    | Keywords: Austria, couples, cure model, fertility, hypogamy, second birth

Projection of family life courses of the descendants of immigrants in England and Wales using microsimulation
Volume 55 - Article 24    | Keywords: England, family, fertility, fertility, microsimulation, migrants, migrants, partnership, population projection, second generation, third generation, United Kingdom, Wales

Work–family balance during the pandemic: Longitudinal evidence from 27 European countries
Volume 55 - Article 22    | Keywords: COVID-19, family-to-work balance, gender, longitudinal analysis, resilience, work-to-family balance