NY24-08: Co-resident Grandparents’ Mortality Risk and Racial-Ethnic Variations

Abstract/Specific Aims:

This project aims to examine the mortality risk of grandparents who live with and provide primary care to their young grandchildren with a focus on racial-ethnic variation. Thus, this project is closely related to Focal Area 1: disparities by race and ethnicity. This project also addresses Focal Area 4: understanding service needs because coresident grandparents who are primary caregivers of their grandchildren are likely among the targeted recipients of OASI and SSI benefits. 

Millions of American grandparents live with their grandchildren and many of them are also the primary caregivers. The practice of coresident grandparenting may affect the economic security, health, and well-being of older people who are facing other aging challenges. Previous research has reported mixed findings on the mortality consequences of coresident grandparenting. In addition, even less is known about potential racial-ethnic disparities in the mortality consequences of coresident grandparenting.

This project seeks to fill these gaps by examining the long-term association between coresident grandparenting measured in 2000 and mortality risk during a follow-up period of 19 years, with a focus on racial-ethnic variations in this association. Drawing on large samples of Census and administrative record data, we will focus on four racial-ethnic groups including non-Hispanic whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. Within each racial-ethnic group, we will take into account the gendered grandparenthood and caregiving burden by distinguishing between grandfathers and grandmothers. For racial-ethnic minorities, we will also consider immigration status, which reflects variations in cultural norms and family economic circumference, thereby affecting the household structure for coresident grandparents (Casper et al. 2016).