The Effects of Caring for Grandchildren on Grandparents’ Cognitive and Mental Health

Abstract

Grandparent caregiving has become an increasingly common family role as individuals age, yet its implications for older adults’ cognitive and mental well-being remain unclear. Guided by the biopsychosocial model, this study examined longitudinal associations between grandparent caregiving level, cognitive functioning, and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults over a six-year period. It was hypothesized that greater caregiving involvement would be associated with lower cognitive functioning, steeper cognitive decline, higher levels of depressive symptoms, and greater increases in depressive symptoms over time.Sample was pulled from the 2010, 2012, and 2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative longitudinal survey of US adults aged 50 years and older. The analytic sample included 12,766 cognitively intact adults aged 50 to 85 at baseline who had no evidence of major depression or Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias in 2010. Participants were categorized into three groups: non-grandparents, low-level caregiving grandparents, and high-level caregiving grandparents. Grandparents with missing caregiving data were excluded to ensure clear group classification. At baseline, the mean age was 64.9 years (range of 50 to 85), 56.2% of participants were female, and 72.9% were self-identified as White. Educational attainment ranged from 0 to 17 years, with an average of 13.0 years of schooling. Longitudinal associations between caregiving level, cognitive functioning, and depressive symptoms were examined using longitudinal mixed-effects models, adjusting for demographic and health-related covariates, including age, gender, race, education, and physical activity. Results provided partial support for the study hypotheses. Grandparent caregiving level was not associated with baseline cognitive functioning or changes in cognitive performance across the six-year study period. Although older grandparents with greater caregiving involvement initially demonstrated better baseline cognitive functioning, this association was no longer significant after accounting for demographic and health-related covariates. Education emerged as the strongest positive predictor of cognitive functioning, whereas female and non-White racial status were associated with lower cognitive performance. Physical activity was also positively associated with cognitive functioning. For mental health, caregiving level was not associated with baseline depressive symptoms. However, grandparents providing low levels of caregiving experienced modest increases in depressive symptoms over time relative to non-caregiving grandparents, even after adjusting for covariates. In contrast, grandparents providing high levels of caregiving did not significantly differ from non-caregivers in depressive symptom trajectories. Female gender, non-White racial status, lower educational attainment, and lower levels of physical activity were associated with greater depressive symptoms. Overall, findings suggest that grandparent caregiving is a complex and heterogeneous experience that is not uniformly associated with either beneficial or adverse outcomes. The influence of caregiving on cognitive and mental well-being appears to depend on broader contextual factors beyond caregiving level alone. Future research should incorporate family living structure, relational dynamics, and the quality of caregiving relationships, to better understand the long-term implications of grandparent caregiving in later life.