IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i13p7981-d851584.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Role of Contact Care by Adult Children in Relieving Depression in Older Adult Individuals

Author

Listed:
  • Seo-Youn Hong

    (Department of Sport, Leisure, & Recreation, Soonchunhyang University, Asan 31538, Korea)

  • Jae-Hyun Kim

    (Pi-Touch Institute, Seoul 04511, Korea)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate how contact care by adult children influences the effect of caring for grandchildren on depression in older adult individuals. Studies have shown that caring for grandchildren either increases or decreases the symptoms of depression in older adult individuals, while other studies have shown no effect. The reason for these inconsistent results is that the key control variable, contact care by adult children, has been omitted from these previous studies. An analysis of panel data consisting of observations from 162 older adult respondents in the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging over the 2008–2016 period confirms that the positive effect of caring for grandchildren on depression in older adults increased as the number of adult children who visited their older adult parents after entrusting their children to them increased. As more of their adult children visited the older adult individuals, the latter were more likely to feel that caring for their grandchildren was healing rather than stressful.

Suggested Citation

  • Seo-Youn Hong & Jae-Hyun Kim, 2022. "The Role of Contact Care by Adult Children in Relieving Depression in Older Adult Individuals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-10, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:13:p:7981-:d:851584
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7981/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7981/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Li-Jung Ku & Sally Stearns & Courtney Houtven & George Holmes, 2012. "The health effects of caregiving by grandparents in Taiwan: an instrumental variable estimation," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 521-540, December.
    2. Mary Elizabeth Hughes & Linda J. Waite & Tracey A. LaPierre & Ye Luo, 2007. "All in the Family: The Impact of Caring for Grandchildren on Grandparents' Health," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 62(2), pages 108-119.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Lianjie & Tang, Yao, 2023. "Impacts of intergenerational caregiving on grandparents’ health: Implications for SDG-3," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 584-598.
    2. Giorgio Brunello & Lorenzo Rocco, 2019. "Grandparents in the blues. The effect of childcare on grandparents’ depression," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 587-613, June.
    3. Liu, Chang & Eriksson, Tor & Yi, Fujin, 2021. "Offspring migration and nutritional status of left-behind older adults in rural China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    4. Hongwei Xu, 2022. "Grandparenting and Cognitive Functioning in China," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(1), pages 285-316, February.
    5. Ates, Merih, 2017. "Does grandchild care influence grandparents’ self-rated health? Evidence from a fixed effects approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 67-74.
    6. Bruno Arpino & Valeria Bordone, 2017. "Regular provision of grandchild care and participation in social activities," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 135-174, March.
    7. Mirkka Danielsbacka & Lenka Křenková & Antti O. Tanskanen, 2022. "Grandparenting, health, and well-being: a systematic literature review," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 341-368, September.
    8. Janina Reinkowski, 2013. "Should We Care that They Care? Grandchild Care and Its Impact on Grandparent Health," ifo Working Paper Series 165, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    9. Komonpaisarn, Touchanun & Loichinger, Elke, 2019. "Providing regular care for grandchildren in Thailand: An analysis of the impact on grandparents’ health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 117-125.
    10. Taehyun Ahn & Kyong Duk Choi, 2019. "Grandparent caregiving and cognitive functioning among older people: evidence from Korea," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 553-586, June.
    11. Janina Reinkowski, 2014. "Empirical Essays in the Economics of Ageing and the Economics of Innovation," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 53.
    12. Danielsbacka, Mirkka & Tanskanen, Antti O. & Coall, David A. & Jokela, Markus, 2019. "Grandparental childcare, health and well-being in Europe: A within-individual investigation of longitudinal data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 194-203.
    13. Nan Sun & Fan Yang, 2021. "Grandparenting and Children’s Health-Empirical Evidence from China," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(3), pages 1105-1120, June.
    14. Eiji Yamamura & Fumio Ohtake, 2023. "Family Structure, Gender and Subjective Well-being: Effect of Child ren before and after COVID 19 in Japan," Papers 2312.04411, arXiv.org.
    15. Wang, Shuhong & Li, Shengxiao (Alex) & Hu, Wanyang, 2022. "Grandparenting and subjective well-being in China: The moderating effects of residential location, gender, age, and income," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    16. Peter Eibich & Xianhua Zai, 2022. "Are the grandparents alright? The health consequences of grandparental childcare provision," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-023, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    17. Peter Eibich & Xianhua Zai, 2024. "Are the grandparents alright? The health consequences of grandparental childcare provision," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(4), pages 1-32, December.
    18. Eiji Yamamura, 2021. "Granddaughter and voting for a female candidate," Papers 2102.13464, arXiv.org.
    19. Xue Yang & Doudou Yin, 2022. "The Protective Effect of Caring for Grandchildren on the Mental Health of the Elderly: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-15, January.
    20. Wang, Wei-Pang & Wu, Li-Hsueh & Zhang, Wei & Tsay, Ruey-Ming, 2019. "Culturally-specific productive engagement and self-rated health among Taiwanese older adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 79-86.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:13:p:7981-:d:851584. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.