Does grandparenting pay off? The effect of childcare on grandparents' cognitive functioning

In ageing societies, it is crucial to study the factors that can help maintain good cognitive functioning in later life. Previous studies have shown that having an engaged life (e.g., being employed or involved in social activities) has a positive effect on cognitive performance. In line with this strand of the literature, we consider the provision of grandparental childcare as a way to remain active in later life. Therefore, following the use-it-or-lose-it theoretical framework, we hypothesise that providing childcare on a daily basis can help older adults maintain better cognitive functioning. In particular, we focus on grandmothers, as they are the most engaged in childcare. Contrary to our hypothesis, descriptive evidence from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) suggest that grandmothers who look after their grandchildren daily have lower cognitive scores than grandmothers who provide care less frequently. However, we show that this negative effect of providing childcare is attributable to the background characteristics of the grandparents. Using an instrumental variable approach to address the endogeneity of grandparental childcare, we find that providing childcare as a substantial and positive effect on one of the four cognitive tests we consider, verbal fluency. This positive effect is particularly strong for older grandmothers. For the other tests of cognitive functioning, no statistically significant effect of grandparental childcare is found. These results contribute to the limited evidence on the effects of grandparenting on grandparents outcomes

Who brings home the bacon? The influence of context on partners' contributions to the household income

Background: Female-breadwinner families represent a relatively new phenomenon in Europe. Little is known about the determinants of this couple type, which sensibly diverts from the traditional economic superiority of men within the household.Objective: This paper studies the contextual correlates of partners’ contribution to the household income, distinguishing between female-breadwinner, male-breadwinner, and equal-income couples. In particular, it focuses on the role of male unemployment rate and the prevalence of gender-egalitarian attitudes as possible explanations for the emergence of female-breadwinner and equal-income couples across European regions and countries.Methods: Using data from the fifth round (2010/2011) of the European Social Survey, integrated with data from the Eurostat database, we model the categorical variable identifying the couple type (male-breadwinner, female-breadwinner, or equal-income couple) by using a multilevel multinomial logistic regression model where individuals are nested within regions and countries.Results: The prevalence of female-breadwinner, male-breadwinner, and equal-income couples varies considerably across European countries as well as within countries. The prevalence of female-breadwinner couples is positively associated with male unemployment, while it is not influenced by the diffusion of gender-egalitarian attitudes. However, the diffusion of gender-egalitarian attitudes matters for explaining the variation in the prevalence of equal-income couples across Europe.Contribution: We add to the literature on partners’ contributions to household income by analysing the spatial distribution and the contextual correlates of female-breadwinner, male-breadwinner, and equal-income couples across European countries and regions.<br/

Smoking, Education and the Ability to Predict Own Survival Probabilities: An Observational Study on US Data

Background: Subjective survival probabilities (SSPs) are a good predictor of mortality, go beyond the aggregate description of survival defined by life tables, and are important for individuals’ decision-making in later life. Despite the well-known mortality differentials by education as well as by characteristics such as smoking, little investigation has focused on SSPs by population sub-groups. Methods: We use data on individuals aged 50-89 from the Health and Retirement Study(HRS) carried out in the USA between 2000 and 2012 (N=23,895). Each respondent was asked to assess the probability to survive to a given target age according to their age at the time of the survey. We assess how individuals’ SSPs and estimated objective survival probabilities (OSPs) vary by education and smoking and calculate, for each respondent, the gap between them. Results: Consistently with real mortality patterns, smokers report the lowest SSPs, both among lower and higher educated people. When comparing SSPs and OSPs we find that, irrespectively of the smoking status, higher educated people are more likely to correctly predict their survival probabilities than their lower educated counterparts. Within both education groups, past smokers better predict their survival probability. Current smokers with low education show the highest probability to overestimate their survival probability. Conclusions: Lower educated people and smokers are aware of their lower life expectancy. Still, they overestimate their survival probabilities more than the higher educated and non-smokers. Our findings emphasize the need for policy makers to disseminate information about the risks of smoking, targeting people with lower education

I am a survivor, keep on surviving: early-life exposure to conflict and subjective survival probabilities in adult life

Life-course studies have shown that early-life conditions predict health and socio-economic status in adult life. This study analyzes whether experiencing a traumatic event in childhood, i.e., the Second World War (WW2), affects subjective survival probabilities (SSPs). We rely on a representative sample of European adults who were differentially exposed to WW2 during childhood as a result of their date and place of birth. Results show that exposure to WW2 increases SSPs, with socio-economic and health characteristics not playing a mediating role. War exposure also counterbalances the adverse effects of health impairments on SSPs, but it does not affect health outcomes per se. This fact, jointly with low mortality rates of the cohort under investigation, suggests that selective mortality and post-traumatic stress are not the main channels. Instead, the results support the hypothesis that personal growth and life appreciation emerge after traumatic events, thereby leading to optimistic perceptions of longevity

Becoming a grandparent and its effect on well-being: the role of order of transitions, time, and gender

Objectives Although the majority of older people are grandparents, little is known on whether and how the transition into grandparenthood affects their well-being. Moreover, evidence on whether the order of the transition, the time since grandchild’s birth, and the socio-demographic characteristics of the offspring modify the grandparental well-being is scarce. Taking into account these factors, our study examines the association between becoming a grandparent and subsequent well-being. Methods Our study is based on grandparents aged 50 and over from waves 4-6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Using longitudinal analyses, we investigate associations between becoming a grandparent and subsequent life satisfaction, positive affect, and depression controlling for demographic and socio-economic factors as well as health and well-being at baseline. Furthermore, we explore the role of modifying factors such as whether the grandchild was first-born, the time since transition, and socio-demographic characteristics of the offspring who became a parent. Results Becoming a grandparent has a positive effect on well-being only among women who became grandmothers for the first time and via their daughters. Moreover, this effect is particularly strong in the proximity of the birth of the grandchild. No effects were found among first-time grandfathers. Having an additional grandchild does not affect well-being of grandparents, regardless of the offspring’s characteristics

Multiple metachronus proliferative fasciitis occurring in different anatomic regions: a case report and review of the literature.

Proliferative fasciitis is a benign lesion that usually has a self-limited course and rarely recurs after excision. In the literature, the multifocal occurrence of PF in different anatomic sites has not been reported so far. In this report, we describe the clinical case of a 30-year-old woman with two metachronous proliferative fasciitis occurring firstly in the orbit and, after 18 months, in the forearm; we also review the available literature on this topic, outlining guidelines for therapy and the follow-up of these patients

Does Grandparenting Influence Engagement in Social Activities?

The positive effects of participation in social activities have been studied in various fields, including political science (in relation to democracy and trust), gerontology, and sociology (for its effects on physical and mental health). Against a background of rapid population ageing, the study of social integration among the elderly is of particular relevance within the framework of active ageing. Yet, whether the relationship between kin and non-kin social activities is characterized by cumulation or competition remains under-explored. In particular, grandparenting has taken a central role for the elderly due to unprecedented overlap between grandparents' and their grandchildren's lives. Grandparenting may stimulate social participation or it may impose time and energy constraints on it. This study aims to assess the effect on the participation in social activities among the elderly of providing childcare on a regular basis. Using an instrumental variable approach on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we find that regular provision of childcare has a significant negative effect on the number of activities in which grandmothers participate. When considering the activities separately by type, we find a negative effect on engagement in educational or training courses for both grandfathers and grandmothers, while a negative effect on volunteering and participating in political or community-related organization is additionally found only for grandmothers. These results contribute to the debate on active ageing

The impact of COVID-19 on fertility plans in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom

Objective: This study offers a descriptive overview of changes in fertility plans during the COVID-19 crisis in a sample of the young population (18\u201334) in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The data were collected between 27 March and 7 April 2020. Results: Our results show that fertility plans have been negatively revised in all countries, but not in the same way. In Germany and France fertility plans changed moderately, with many people still planning or postponing their decision to have a child. In Italy, however, the proportion of abandoners is much higher than in the other countries, and the proportion of those deciding to postpone their plans is lower. Moreover, across countries the demographic characteristics of individuals appear to be associated with fertility plans in different ways. In Italy, abandoners are common among individuals younger than 30 and those without a tertiary education. In Germany, abandoners are slightly more prevalent in the regions most affected by COVID-19. In the United Kingdom, the individuals that most frequently abandoned their fertility plans are those who expect the crisis to have a dramatic negative effect on their future income. Finally, in France and Spain we do not observe a clear pattern of revision of fertility plans. Contribution: These results suggest that different mechanisms are at work, possibly due to the different economic, demographic, and policy pre-crisis background and post-crisis prospects. Low-fertility contexts in particular appear to be more at risk of a fertility loss due to the crisis