Is Childcare Bad for the Mental Health of Grandparents? Evidence from SHARE

Giorgio Brunello and Lorenzo Rocco

No 10022, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We estimate the causal effects of regular and occasional grandchild care on the depression of grandmothers and grandfathers, using data from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and an instrumental variables strategy which exploits the variation in the timing of interviews across individuals and the fact that childcare declines with the age of grandchildren. We find that 10 additional hours of childcare per month, a 31 percent increase with respect to the sample average, increases the probability of developing depressive symptoms by 3.0 to 3.2 percentage points for grandmothers and by 5.4 to 5.9 percentage points for grandfathers. These results suggest that policies that substitute informal with formal childcare can improve the mental wellbeing of grandparents.

Keywords: depression; grandparents; childcare; Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2016-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem, nep-eur, nep-hap and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published as 'Grandparents in the blues. The effect of childcare on grandparents' depression' in: Review of the Economics of the Household, 2017,190, 67-74

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