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Grandparental Childcare and Adult Children’s Fertility: Evidence from France

Elizabeth Wilkins, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Institut national d'etudes demographiques (INED)
Laurent Toulemon, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

Among the set of fertility determinants in European countries, grandparental childcare has been shown to have a moderate and unstable effect at the country level. However, these moderate overall effects may be masking considerable heterogeneity within countries. Using the case of France, we aim to disentangle potential heterogeneity to identify the particular situations in which grandparental childcare support is important for adult children’s fertility intentions and behaviour. We aim to do this by considering grandparental childcare as one element within a landscape of support, comprising different sources and types of support received by adult children. We will use Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) data, on a sample of parents living as a couple in France, interviewed in the first wave of the GGS, their actual fertility being observed 6 years after the first interrogation. We will test the hypotheses that the effect of grandparental childcare on fertility is largest when it is an accessory form of support, combined with other sources and types of support rather than the main form of support, and that this relationship is mediated by socioeconomic factors and family preferences. We will then test our results using data from the Swedish and Dutch GGS.

Keywords: Fertility and childbirth, Intergenerational relations, Family demography, Cross-country comparative analyses

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session P17.