Dynamics in a three-generational family: Teens, grandparents, and babies.

What is it about?

When families raise children in households with grandparents and a young mother under the age of 18, grandmothers often take on caregiving roles. We found that grandfathers had a significant positive effect on their daughters and grandchildren. In contrast, even though grandmothers engaged in much more caregiving, we were not able to find any significant positive effect of their efforts on their daughters or grandchildren. We speculate that this difference between the effects of grandmothers and grandfathers might be due to the fact that grandfathers were seen as volunteering while grandmothers were seen as obligated to be involved.

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