Older Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren in Rural China: Cohort Change in Resources and Deficits Across 17 Years

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Grandparents play an important role in rural Chinese families, often providing extensive and intensive care for grandchildren whose parents have migrated for work opportunities in urban centers. China’s economic growth over the last several decades is, to some degree, predicated on the efforts of grandparents, who enable the migration of workers to locations where productive jobs have been plentiful and return higher wages than jobs in their home communities (Wu & Rao, 2017). However, the social conditions of families and the capacities of older grandparents in China have not been static in recent decades. Declines in fertility have reduced the numbers of grandchildren available to grandparents (Mjelde-Mossey, 2007) while, at the same time, the physical, mental, social, and financial health of older adults have improved due to China’s rapid modernization and economic development (Chen et al., 2010). As a rule, improved health in later life and fertility postponement in younger generations dramatically alter the likelihood and timing of becoming a grandparent, as in patterns observed in the United States (Margolis & Verdery, 2019). Given the speed of such changes in China, as well as the strong integration of grandparents within the family system, we might expect the consequences of these trends to be particularly profound.