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

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

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

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Attitudes toward child well-being in diverse families across Europe
Volume 53 - Article 11    | Keywords: attitudes, children, Europe, European Social Survey, family, gender, same-sex couples, single parenthood, stepfamily

The partnership, fertility, and employment trajectories of immigrants in the United Kingdom: An intersectional life course approach using three-channel sequence analysis
Volume 53 - Article 10    | Keywords: employment, fertility, immigrants, multi-channel sequence analysis, partnership, United Kingdom

Where do we go from here? Partnership-parenthood trajectories of cohabitation as first union during young adulthood in the United States
Volume 53 - Article 9    | Keywords: cohabitation, family inequality, fertility, marriage, race/ethnicity, transition to adulthood, union formation, United States of America

Education, religion, and male fertility in sub-Saharan Africa: A descriptive analysis
Volume 53 - Article 8    | Keywords: education, male fertility, polygyny, religion, sub-Saharan Africa

Grandchildren’s spatial proximity to grandparents and intergenerational support in the United States
Volume 52 - Article 34    | Keywords: grandparent-grandchild relationships, grandparents, intergenerational spatial proximity, intergenerational transfers, monetary transfers, time transfers