What role do grandparents play in rearing children?

The Bendigo Family Study team have been busy coding data from our new grandparents. We hope to be able to understand the key role played by grandparents in rural communities.

We already know that grandparents play a valuable role in raising grandchildren with a 2021 Australian survey of 2383 Australian grandparents finding that most grandparents (63%) provide care for their grandchildren if the youngest grandchild is under 10 years of age (1,2). However care is often on a casual or occasional basis (62% of those providing child care), compared to regular (39%) or school holiday (26%) child care basis (1,2). About one in five grandparents provide a combination of these, such as providing school holiday child care as well as occasional child care (1,2). Usually grandparents provide child care to support parents’ work. Grandparents’ desire to connect and build relationships with grandchildren and family was fundamental to them taking on this child care (1,2).

In the Bendigo Family Study we are exploring grandparents attitudes towards medical innovations, as well as their capacity to access management of chronic disease in the community, and the impact of intergenerational care.

We hope to have some early data to present to the PSANZ ASM in Perth in 2026.
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Best wishes
Professor Julie Quinlivan
Chief investigator
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References
1. AIFS. Grandparents and childcare in Australia. AIHW 2022. See at: https://aifs.gov.au/research/research-reports/grandparents-and-child-care-australia
2. Baxter, J. (2022). Grandparents and child care in Australia. (Families in Australia Survey report). Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.