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Lookup NU author(s): Professor David Lain, Dr Jakov JandricORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
‘Baby boomers’, born after the Second World War, have been portrayed as selfish and individualistic, depriving subsequent generations of the opportunities they benefitted from. This debate has ignored intergenerational transfers within families, such as provision of grandparental childcare. This article explores why grandparents choose to provide childcare for grandchildren while their adult children are working. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 55 grandparents, we argue that values are essential to understanding why grandparents chose to provide childcare in the first place. These relate to the importance of family-based childcare, familial obligations towards adult children, and intergenerational solidarity. While values shaped the desire to provide some childcare, the socio-economic and employment circumstances of adult children and grandparents influenced the nature of the childcare provided and the changes grandparents made to their lives to accommodate caring. Some grandparents significantly changed their employment and housing circumstances to provide childcare, undermining the stereotype of a ‘selfish generation’.
Author(s): Airey L, Lain D, Jandrić J, Loretto W
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: The Sociological Review
Year: 2020
Volume: 69
Issue: 4
Pages: 812-829
Online publication date: 04/05/2020
Acceptance date: 16/01/2020
Date deposited: 16/01/2020
ISSN (print): 0038-0261
ISSN (electronic): 1467-954X
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120916104
DOI: 10.1177/0038026120916104
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