Volume 37 - Article 29 | Pages 917–928 Author has provided data and code for replicating results

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

By Jan Skopek, Thomas Leopold

Print this page  Facebook  Twitter

 

 
Date received:06 Jun 2017
Date published:06 Oct 2017
Word count:1946
Keywords:East Germany, education, fertility, gender, German Ageing Survey (DEAS), grandparents, West Germany
DOI:10.4054/DemRes.2017.37.29
Additional files:readme.37-29 (text file, 3 kB)
 demographic-research.37-29 (zip file, 191 kB)
 

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]

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

» Socioeconomic differentials in fertility in South Korea
Volume 44 - Article 39    | Keywords: education, fertility, gender

» Gender differences and similarities in the educational gradient in fertility: The role of earnings potential and gender composition in study disciplines
Volume 39 - Article 13    | Keywords: education, fertility, gender

» Childlessness and fertility by couples' educational gender (in)equality in Austria, Bulgaria, and France
Volume 37 - Article 12    | Keywords: education, fertility, gender

» Estimating male fertility in eastern and western Germany since 1991: A new lowest low?
Volume 35 - Article 53    | Keywords: East Germany, fertility, West Germany

» Second births in western Germany and France
Volume 14 - Article 14    | Keywords: education, fertility, West Germany