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Grandparental help in Indonesia is directed preferentially towards needier descendants: A potential confounder when exploring grandparental influences on child health

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  • Snopkowski, Kristin
  • Sear, Rebecca

Abstract

A considerable body of evidence has now demonstrated positive correlations between grandparental presence and child health outcomes. It is typically assumed that such correlations exist because grandparental investment in their grandchildren improves child health and wellbeing. However, less is known about how grandparents allocate help to adult children and grandchildren, particularly in lower income contexts. Here we use detailed quantitative data from the longitudinal Indonesia Family Life Survey (data collected in 1993, 1997, 2000, 2007; n = 16,250) to examine grandparental help in a society transitioning both demographically and economically. We test the hypothesis that grandparents direct help preferentially towards those adult children and grandchildren most in need of help. This hypothesis was supported for help provided by married grandparents and single grandmothers, who tended to: provide more help to their adult children when this generation had young children themselves, provide financial help if their adult children were poorer, and provide more household help if their adult daughters worked outside the home. One unexpected result was that help from maternal and paternal grandparents is positively correlated; if one set of grandparents is helping the other set is more likely to help, counter to our predictions. These results provide support for the hypothesis that grandparents preferentially invest in some descendants over others, where married grandparents and single grandmothers tend to invest in those adult children and grandchildren with the most need. Investigating the effect of grandparents on child health outcomes may therefore be confounded by grandparent's preferential investment in needier descendants.

Suggested Citation

  • Snopkowski, Kristin & Sear, Rebecca, 2015. "Grandparental help in Indonesia is directed preferentially towards needier descendants: A potential confounder when exploring grandparental influences on child health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 105-114.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:128:y:2015:i:c:p:105-114
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.01.012
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Christine Ho, 2015. "Grandchild care, intergenerational transfers, and grandparents’ labor supply," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 359-384, June.
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    5. Stephen Elias & Clare Noone, 2011. "The Growth and Development of the Indonesian Economy," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 33-43, December.
    6. Rebecca Sear & David Coall, 2011. "How Much Does Family Matter? Cooperative Breeding and the Demographic Transition," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 37(Supplemen), pages 81-112, January.
    7. Philip Kreager & Elisabeth Schröder-Butterfill, 2008. "Indonesia against the trend? Ageing and inter-generational wealth flows in two Indonesian communities," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(52), pages 1781-1810.
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    Cited by:

    1. Susan Schaffnit & Rebecca Sear, 2017. "Supportive families versus support from families: The decision to have a child in the Netherlands," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(14), pages 414-454.
    2. Kai Pierre Willführ & Johannes Johow & Eckart Voland, 2018. "When the mother-in-law is just as good—Differential mortality of reproductive females by family network composition," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-22, March.
    3. Laure Spake & Susan B. Schaffnit & Rebecca Sear & Mary K. Shenk & Richard Sosis & John H. Shaver, 2021. "Mother’s Partnership Status and Allomothering Networks in the United Kingdom and United States," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-25, May.
    4. Jacqueline Ramke & Fatima Kyari & Nyawira Mwangi & MMPN Piyasena & GVS Murthy & Clare E Gilbert, 2019. "Cataract Services are Leaving Widows Behind: Examples from National Cross-Sectional Surveys in Nigeria and Sri Lanka," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-11, October.
    5. Kristin Snopkowski & Rebecca Sear, 2016. "Does grandparental help mediate the relationship between kin presence and fertility?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(17), pages 467-498.

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