The Effects of Caring for Grandchildren on Health and Well-Being of Grandparents: Evidence From Vietnam

To date, studies on the effects of grandparenting on grandparents' health and well-being do not reach the same conclusion and most of them have been conducted in developed countries. We add to this literature by examining the causal relationship between grandparenting and grandparents' health and well-being in Vietnam, where the social norm and reciprocal relationships between adult children and their older parents are strong. We used instrumental variable estimations to address the endogeneity issue of the decision to provide care. Using the national survey on older persons in Vietnam, we found that grandparenting care had positive effects on psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and self-rated health of grandparents. We also found that the effects were heterogenous by caregiver's gender, in which grandmothers were more beneficial from caregiving tasks than grandfathers. Further exploring the mechanisms underlying the effects revealed that improvements in memory and stronger social networks were potential channels through which grandparenting might improve the health and well-being of grandparents. Our findings support the theory of role enhancement, suggesting that grandparents can have health and well-being benefits from grandparenting. Policies aiming at strengthening old age protection and family relationships should be advocated to sustain the subjective well-being of older adults.