tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/grandparents-15057/articlesGrandparents – The Conversation2023-08-08T12:29:52Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2101542023-08-08T12:29:52Z2023-08-08T12:29:52ZOlder ‘sandwich generation’ Californians spent more time with parents and less with grandkids after paid family leave law took effect<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541049/original/file-20230803-27-xpn12q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4535%2C2841&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly a dozen states have enacted these policies so far.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-taking-care-of-old-woman-in-wheelchair-royalty-free-image/970176900?adppopup=true">Westend61 via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>A California law that mandates paid family leave has led to adults in their 50s, 60s and 70s spending more time taking care of their parents and less time being their grandkids’ caregivers.</p>
<p>The law requires all employers to allow eligible workers to <a href="https://edd.ca.gov/en/disability/Am_I_Eligible_for_PFL_Benefits/">take up to six weeks of paid leave</a> to care for newborns, newly adopted children or seriously ill family members.</p>
<p>From 2006, two years after the law went into effect, to 2016, <a href="https://ca.db101.org/ca/situations/workandbenefits/rights/program2c.htm">this policy led to older adults’ spending 19 fewer hours</a> per year caring for their grandchildren, a 17% decrease. They spent 20 additional hours on average helping their own parents, a 50% increase. </p>
<p>The effect was most striking for people with newborn grandchildren and parents in need of help, but the law also benefited Californians with older grandchildren and those who don’t have parents requiring their assistance.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2023.2226283">These findings</a> are from research I conducted with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yWNlAzcAAAAJ">Marcus Dillender</a>, a fellow economist. They suggest the law had effects through two channels. It enabled older adults to take paid leave to care for relatives with medical needs and it reduced the need for older adults to care for their grandchildren by granting paid parental leave to these children’s parents.</p>
<p>To assess how older adults spend their time, we analyzed data for people between the ages of 50 and 79 from the Health and Retirement Study, a <a href="https://hrs.isr.umich.edu/">longitudinal study of approximately 20,000 Americans</a>.</p>
<p>The survey asks respondents in that age group how much time they spend taking care of their grandchildren and helping their aging parents with basic personal activities like dressing, eating and bathing. We compared outcomes for people who lived in California with what happened to Americans in other states before and the law’s enactment.</p>
<p>We also looked into what happened for people who had different combinations of caregiving obligations – grandchildren less than 2 years old or older grandkids, or parents who need help or no parents requiring assistance.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The U.S. is the only wealthy country that <a href="https://www.oecd.org/els/soc/PF2_1_Parental_leave_systems.pdf">doesn’t require employers to provide paid family leave</a>. California was the first state to implement its own policies; <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/labor-and-employment/state-family-and-medical-leave-laws">10 others and the District of Columbia</a> have followed suit so far.</p>
<p>These policies can significantly affect older adults, who spend substantial time caring for their relatives.</p>
<p>Caregiving has become a more urgent policy issue because of the growing number of Americans who feel that they belong to a “<a href="https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/sandwich-generation-study-shows-challenges-caring-both-kids-and-aging-parents">sandwich generation</a>” of people who have to take care of their children or grandchildren and their parents at the same time. </p>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p>Other research has found that California’s paid family leave policy doubled the overall length of maternity leave by new mothers, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21676">increasing it from an average of three weeks to six weeks</a>. It also upped the likelihood that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22030">fathers take parental leave</a> following the birth or adoption of a child by 46% – although <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21894">fathers take less leave on average than mothers</a>.</p>
<p>According to some of the many other studies conducted so far, California’s paid family leave law helped workers with caregiving responsibilities stay employed by allowing them to take time off with reduced financial risk and increased job continuity, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waab022">including for those ages 45 to 64 with a disabled spouse</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gny105">middle-aged female caregivers</a>. The law has, in addition, reduced the share of elderly people using nursing homes by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22038">facilitating more informal care</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joelle Abramowitz receives funding from the National Institute on Aging, the Social Security Administration and the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>The law changed older adults’ caregiving behavior because their children became more able to take paid time off work to care for their own newborns.Joelle Abramowitz, Assistant Research Scientist at the Survey Research Center, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2059682023-06-21T09:04:51Z2023-06-21T09:04:51ZHow to create an oral history with your grandparents – don’t delay and come equipped<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527744/original/file-20230523-23-7a7q68.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5484%2C3650&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Creating an oral history with your grandparents can help to preserve your cultural family history. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-black-man-using-laptop-old-2129293601">i_am_zews/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Family stories are a way of capturing important historical events and they pass this knowledge on to future generations. As memoirist <a href="https://nancykmiller.com/pdfs/But-Enough-About-Me-Nancy-K-Miller.pdf">Nancy K Miller says</a>, family stories are not just personal but an “aid or a spur to keep cultural memory alive”.</p>
<p>Hazel Barrett’s grandfather came to England on the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948. She wrote his story for my course <a href="https://classicleedsforlife.leeds.ac.uk/Broadening/Module/ENGL3386">Telling Lives</a>, at the University of Leeds. </p>
<p>Now a lecturer at Sheffield College, Barrett emphasises the value of sitting down to listen to “unheard voices telling their unedited stories, which no history book can do so well”. But how should you go about this socially important and intimate act?</p>
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<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/he-is-always-there-to-listen-friendships-between-young-men-are-more-than-just-beers-and-banter-200301utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">‘He is always there to listen’: friendships between young men are more than just beers and banter</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-finding-your-purpose-matters-and-four-ways-to-find-yours-203298utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Why ‘finding your purpose’ matters – and four ways to find yours</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/your-mullet-is-more-than-a-haircut-its-a-political-statement-a-hair-historian-explains-203973utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Your mullet is more than a haircut, it’s a political statement – a hair historian explains</a></em></p>
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<h2>1. Don’t delay</h2>
<p>Many of us wait too long to become interested in our family history. Deborah Cass, who has been studying family history for over 25 years, never knew her own great-grandfather. But she managed to learn his story through a surviving cousin.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Writing_Your_Family_History.html?id=clatAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">Cass advises</a>: “Any family members … willing to participate and share their reminiscences with you are an asset.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bealewkowiczarchive.com/">Bea Lewkowicz</a>, director of <a href="https://www.bealewkowiczarchive.com/projects">two Jewish oral history archives</a>, argues that an interviewer who is also a relative has the edge even over professional historians when it comes to older interviewees who may be experiencing impaired memory, as family can help to fill in the gaps.</p>
<h2>2. Come equipped</h2>
<p>Consider investing in audio recording equipment and test it first. Not videoing your interviewee will allow you to concentrate on their voice, and might put your relative more at ease.</p>
<p>Transcribe your recording and think about how to preserve both the audio and the transcription. They are likely to become a valued family resource, so consider uploading the files to a cloud server or a website.</p>
<p>There are many public archives of oral histories that take deposits. <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/oral-history">The British Library</a> has one of the largest collections, including a section on <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/oral-histories-of-ethnicity-and-post-colonialism">migration, ethnicity and post-colonialism</a> in Britain.</p>
<p>You could also equip yourself with professional techniques. <a href="https://www.ohs.org.uk/advice/">The Oral History Society</a>, whose tagline is “everybody’s story matters”, offers training, advice and online resources.</p>
<h2>3. Research before you go</h2>
<p>Find out as much as possible about the times and places your interviewee experienced beforehand.</p>
<p>Georgia Hennessy Jackson, who leads the storytelling programme for the <a href="https://cancer.ca/en/about-us/stories">Canadian Cancer Society</a>, says that “identifying a moment of change can help get and shape a story”.</p>
<p>Examples from my <a href="https://classicleedsforlife.leeds.ac.uk/Broadening/Module/ENGL3386">former Telling Lives students</a> include a Zulu grandmother who lived through South African apartheid, a grandfather who was a coal miner in Wakefield during the coal-mining strike, an Irish Catholic grandmother who became a devout Muslim in the 1950s. What made these family stories especially memorable is that the researcher identified a particular theme.</p>
<p>Pore over family documents such as birth certificates and old passports, photographs and heirlooms, however trinket-like they might seem. Family history requires research in its broadest sense.</p>
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<span class="caption">Colin Grant suggests bringing a gift.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-black-man-gives-old-woman-2129293604">i_am_zews/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>4. Consider your questions</h2>
<p>Colin Grant, author of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Homecoming.html?id=cJnHwAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">Homecoming</a>, an oral history of the Windrush generation, urges: “Don’t bring out a sheet of questions. Become familiar with what you want to ask in advance and expect surprises and digressions.”</p>
<p>Grant also suggests bringing a gift. “[It] doesn’t have to be a physical one; it can be you telling them something about yourself. Don’t just dive in.” The interview is a conversation, an exchange. </p>
<p>That said, prepare your questions. You will probably want to begin with basics, such as where and when your storyteller was born, their family members and other facts that they might need time to prepare.</p>
<p>Work towards asking more open questions and probing for sensory responses. Such as: what did it feel like to be the eldest of six children? And, can you describe the smell and taste of the food your mother would cook?</p>
<p>Food and drink are a good indication of a person’s time and place and allow your storyteller to travel back to their memories more easily. You might find it helpful to use family documents as prompts.</p>
<p>Listen also for the silences, the stories your relatives find hard to tell. Grant notes the West Indian habit of obfuscation: “Me don’t like people chat my business.” Such reticence is common among those used to being silenced, stigmatised or misrepresented.</p>
<h2>5. Be ethical and be ready to be transformed</h2>
<p>Don’t skip ethical considerations. Share your typed transcript with your storyteller, allow them to make changes and ensure you get approval for how you plan to use their story and words.</p>
<p>Hennessy Jackson says that “truly informed consent is more than signing a form. It’s about helping storytellers to understand exactly what is involved when they allow their story to be shared.” In other words, you need to talk with your relative about potential audiences for their story and the effects for them when others read or hear it.</p>
<p>You should tailor your approach to your interviewee from the start. If you think your storyteller will find a long interview overwhelming, schedule several shorter visits. And be ready for their story to have an effect on you. </p>
<p>As Grant says, “be prepared for tears”. You’re likely to be transformed by the experience – and your relative might be too.</p>
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<p>You can <em><a href="https://bit.ly/3DdOERY">download the e-book here</a></em>. Thank you for your interest.</p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205968/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay Prosser does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pore over family documents such as birth certificates and old passports, photographs and heirlooms, however trinket-like they might seem. Family history requires research in its broadest sense.Jay Prosser, Reader in Humanities, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1956372022-12-16T13:14:48Z2022-12-16T13:14:48ZOver the holidays, try talking to your relatives like an anthropologist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500772/original/file-20221213-20478-ts9sxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C11%2C7326%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many people go their entire lives knowing little about their relatives' childhoods and formative experiences.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/hands-of-senior-woman-holding-cup-of-coffee-royalty-free-image/556674747?adppopup=true">Westend61/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How is it possible to spend so much time with your parents and grandparents and not really know them?</p>
<p>This question has puzzled me <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/anthropology/faculty/elk612">as an anthropologist</a>. It’s especially relevant for the holiday season, when millions of people travel to spend time with their families. </p>
<p>When my parents were alive, I traveled long distances to be with them. We had the usual conversations: what the kids were doing, how the job was going, aches and pains. It wasn’t until after my parents died, though, that I wondered whether I really knew them in a deep, rich and nuanced way. And I realized that I’d never asked them about the formative periods of their lives, their childhoods and teenage years. </p>
<p>What had I missed? How had this happened? </p>
<p>In fact, I had interviewed my mother a few years before her death. But I only asked her about other relatives – people I was curious about because my father’s job had taken us to places away from the rest of the family. I based my questions for my mother on the bit of information I already had, to build a family tree. You might say I didn’t know what I didn’t know. </p>
<p>I decided to research the kinds of questions that would have elicited from my mother things about her life that I had no clue about and that now remain hidden and lost forever. I interviewed older people to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690817/the-essential-questions-by-elizabeth-keating-phd/">develop questions</a> that would paint a vivid picture of a person’s life as a child and teenager. I wanted details that would help me see the world that had influenced the person they became. </p>
<p>So I used my training as an anthropologist to ask the type of questions an anthropologist would ask when trying to understand a way of life or culture they know little about. Anthropologists want to see the world from another person’s point of view, through a new lens. The answers I got from older people opened whole new worlds for me.</p>
<h2>Probing the mundane</h2>
<p>One secret to having a deep conversation with your elders when you’re together over the holidays is to set aside your customary role. Forget, for the space of the interview, about your role as their grandchild or child, niece or nephew, and think like an anthropologist.</p>
<p>Most <a href="https://lib.guides.umd.edu/c.php?g=326980&p=2198795">genealogical inquiries</a> concentrate on the big life events like births, deaths and marriages, or building a family tree. </p>
<p>But anthropologists want to know about ordinary life: interactions with neighbors, how the passage of time was experienced, objects that were important to them, what children were afraid of, what courtship practices were like, parenting styles and more. </p>
<p>When you ask about social life, you’ll get descriptions that paint a picture of what it was like to be a child figuring things out back then – when, for instance, as one relative explained, “Unless you were told to go and say hello to Grandma, you never just, as a child, spoke to adults.” </p>
<p>On the other hand, when you ask about important objects, you’ll hear about those tangible things that pass from generation to generation in your family that are vessels of value. These ordinary things can convey stories about family life, just as this person who grew up in the U.K. describes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Mum used to say to me that the best part of the day was me coming home from school, coming in the back door and sitting on the stool in the kitchen and just talking, a mother-daughter thing. I’ve still got that stool from the kitchen. My father built it in evening classes. My children remember sitting on the stool in the kitchen, too, while Grandma was baking, passing time, drinking cups of tea and eating shortbread.”</p>
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<p>My interview subject, now a grandparent herself, had a hard time understanding the fascination young people have with the social worlds contained in their phones. </p>
<p>But on the topic of phones, I found there can also be unexpected points of connection across generations. When I asked one grandparent about the home she grew up in, as she was visualizing her home in rural South Dakota, she suddenly remembered the telephone they had, a “<a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/62876/10-aspects-old-telephones-might-confuse-younger-readers">party line</a>” phone, which was common in the U.S. back then. </p>
<p>All the families in the area shared one phone line, and you were supposed to only pick up the phone when you heard your family’s special ring – a certain number of rings. But as she told it, her mother’s connection to the community was greatly expanded even then by telephone technology:</p>
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<p>“We had a phone, and it was on a party line. And you know, we would have our ring, and of course, you’d hear the other rings too. And then sometimes, my mom would sneak it and lift up the receiver to see what was going on.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The hands of two people clasping over a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In addition to being exposed to a different way of life, there can also be unexpected points of connection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/you-have-my-full-support-royalty-free-image/1135286661?phrase=holding%20hands%20at%20table%20black&adppopup=true">PeopleImages/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘All you have to do is ask’</h2>
<p>I enjoyed the interviews with older people so much that I gave my students at the University of Texas at Austin the assignment to interview their grandparents. They ended up having exhilarating, interesting and generation-bridging conversations. </p>
<p>Their experiences, along with mine, led me <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690817/the-essential-questions-by-elizabeth-keating-phd/">to write a guide</a> for people wanting to learn more about their parents’ and grandparents’ early lives, to protect a part of family history that is precious and easily lost.</p>
<p>Grandparents are <a href="https://www.jenonline.org/article/S0099-1767(20)30425-6/fulltext">often lonely</a> and feel <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388922/The-ignored-elderly-Weve-invisible-society-say-half-65s.html">no one listens</a> or takes what they have to say seriously. I found out that this can be because many of us don’t know how to start a conversation that gives them a chance to talk about the vast knowledge and experience they have. </p>
<p>By taking the position of an anthropologist, my students were able to step out of their familiar frame of reference and see the world as older generations did. One student even told the class that after interviewing her grandmother, she wished she could have been a young person in her grandmother’s time.</p>
<p>Often, the tales of “ordinary” life relayed to my students by their older relatives seemed anything but ordinary. They included going to schools segregated by race, women needing a man to accompany them in order to be allowed into a pub or restaurant, and leaving school in the sixth grade to work on the family farm.</p>
<p>Time and again, grandparents said some version of “no one’s asked me these questions before.” </p>
<p>When I was first developing the right questions to ask older family members, I asked one of my research participants to interview her elderly mother about daily life when she was a child. Toward the end of that interview, she said to her mother, “I never knew this stuff before.” </p>
<p>In response, her 92-year-old mother said, “All you have to do is just ask.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Keating does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you skirt the small talk and dig a little deeper, you’ll be surprised at what you might learn.Elizabeth Keating, Professor of Anthropology, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1904562022-09-14T17:02:05Z2022-09-14T17:02:05ZGrieving for a grandparent: a counsellor explains how they help people through such a loss<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484684/original/file-20220914-9089-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C0%2C5707%2C3830&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">William Prince of Wales and Catherine Princess of Wales accompanied by Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan Duchess of Sussex look at tributes to Queen Elizabeth II outside Windsor Castle</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alamy/ Jamie Lorriman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of us feel touched by the loss of our queen, but that is nothing
compared to the loss of a beloved grandparent. The queen’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren have lost a wise and loving guardian. For most people their parent or parents are their main caregiver but grandparents can have a special role in our lives.</p>
<p>I know, from conversations with bereaved people, that the media coverage of the queen’s death has triggered many to revisit their own losses. If it means that they use the opportunity to explore the previously unresolved, that can only be a good thing.</p>
<p>Everyone’s grief journey is unique. But this is how I, in my practice as a bereavement counsellor, guide clients through the loss of a grandparent. No experienced bereavement counsellor makes assumptions, either about
the relationship between the lost loved one and their mourning relative, or
about the thoughts and feelings the client is experiencing in their grief. </p>
<p>The first step when I meet a new client, whatever their age, is to ask them to
tell me, at their own pace, the story of the loss, including events that <a href="https://uk.jkp.com/products/supporting-people-through-loss-and-grief">led up to it</a>, such as a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16270342/">prolonged illness</a> or sudden unexpected death. </p>
<p>The way they tell the story, in detail or rushed tearfully or in a matter-of-fact style, gives me important clues into their emotional state. Telling the story in a brief, dispassionate way is a signal that they are dissociating from their grief, for example.</p>
<p>For young children, their account helps me understand how much they have been told by the grown-ups. However, even a teenage or adult grandchild may not have all the information they need to make sense of the loss. Unlike their parents, they may have not been present at the death. </p>
<p>Adults who hurried to be at their grandparent’s (or parent’s) final hours, but did not make it in time, can be left with a profound sense of guilt. Making sense of, and <a href="https://nebula.wsimg.com/10af421c023232a9f5736ca1393ac353?AccessKeyId=C005B8E40871028AF00A&disposition=0&alloworigin=1">finding meaning</a> in, the loss is the most important part of grief resolution. This includes understanding and articulating our feelings.</p>
<h2>Helping young children grieve</h2>
<p>Even the youngest child grieves in some way. The intellectual and cognitive stage of the child makes a big difference to how a counsellor will work. </p>
<p>A toddler does not understand the permanence of death. A young
child’s <a href="https://www.verywellfamily.com/the-signs-of-magical-thinking-in-children-290168">magical thinking</a>, the egocentric stage of believing that their actions can result in unrelated events, can leave them feeling that they in some way caused the death. </p>
<p>The child that reaches an abstract stage of thinking about death, normally between the ages of 11 and 16, may still struggle with an emotional vocabulary. Even a baby can sense family stress and that their parent, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Why-Love-Matters-How-affection-shapes-a-babys-brain/Gerhardt/p/book/9780415870535">feeling the loss of their parent</a>, is emotionally distant.</p>
<p>The depth of a grandchild’s grief may not be fully understood by their family,
because, understandably, they are wrapped up in their own grief. There are times when it is helpful for the counsellor to work in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16816226/">collaboration with the adult relatives</a>. Counsellors who work with children often work with parents to help them support their child. </p>
<p>Parents and siblings of the deceased may have been expecting the death
sooner or later, whereas to grandchildren, the loss may have come as a shock
to their <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5088720/">assumptive world</a>. This means the personal world we know and take for granted: in this instance, a world in which grandma or grandad would always be there. </p>
<p>The seriousness of the grandparent’s condition may not have been communicated to the children, and what they do know may have been gleaned by overhearing snippets of adult conversation. It is not always easy to recognise a young child’s grief because it is often expressed differently to an adult, including anger, mood swings, and regression into the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24521044/">behaviour of a younger child</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young hands grasp older hands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483975/original/file-20220912-18-dzzz5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5000%2C3315&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483975/original/file-20220912-18-dzzz5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483975/original/file-20220912-18-dzzz5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483975/original/file-20220912-18-dzzz5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483975/original/file-20220912-18-dzzz5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483975/original/file-20220912-18-dzzz5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483975/original/file-20220912-18-dzzz5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grandparent loss is part of growing up.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-hand-holding-elderly-sitting-wheel-760253272">OHishiapply/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I also need to know the part the grandparent played in the grandchild’s life. Grandparents frequently pick up grandchildren from school, read them stories, teach them songs, help them with homework and take them on days out. The grandparent can be a role model for the children of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28198652/">single-parent families</a>. A grandchild whose grandparent was a significant part of their life needs time to adapt and <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/431651A">relearn a world</a> without granny or grandpa.</p>
<h2>Adults and teenagers</h2>
<p>I have worked with young adults who regarded a grandmother as a surrogate for an absent mother. I have been told: “On paper she was my Nana, but in reality, she was my Mum.” As it becomes common for people to live into their 80s and 90s, there will be more adults bereaved by the loss of a grandparent. To a great extent, the emotions of adults are the same, particularly in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03069885.2021.1983154">early weeks and months of grief</a>.</p>
<p>A grandchild of any age can be left with <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4318045">disenfranchised grief</a>, a belief that they have no right to the thoughts and feelings they are experiencing. </p>
<p>Once I am confident that my client understands what happened, can make
sense of the death and has the vocabulary to express their emotions, we begin
the process of adapting to the loss. No longer do psychologists expect people to let go and move on. Instead we encourage them to preserve memories, which helps to to develop a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-97406-000">new, symbolic bond</a> with their grandparent. </p>
<p>For older children it can help to go through old photographs and talk with them about past events. For young children we do this with <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203152683-80/memory-boxes-jordan-potash-stephanie-handel">memory boxes</a>. These are boxes, which the child may want to decorate, filled with pictures and objects that represent their lost loved one, or their relationship. </p>
<p>Young children intuitively take time out from their grief, and to some extent adults do too, although guilt and social pressures may prevent this. It helps to validate the unique and creative ways older children and young people may choose to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21058610/">distract themselves</a> from their grief, often with hobbies, films, computer games, or time on social media with friends. I let them know this is natural and doesn’t diminish the bond they had with their late grandparent. </p>
<p>Grieving for grandparents is a part of growing up, and for most of us, preparation for losing parents. The grief is always there. Effective bereavement counselling leaves the client aware that their grief will continue, but will become more manageable, and breaks the acute grief cycle of unresolved emotions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190456/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Frederick Wilson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The death of the Queen may turn people’s minds to the loss of their own grandparents, or how the younger royals will cope.John Frederick Wilson, Honorary Research Fellow, Director of Bereavement Services Counselling & Mental Health Clinic, York St John UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1881142022-08-15T17:50:52Z2022-08-15T17:50:52ZMultigenerational living: A strategy to cope with unaffordable housing?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478139/original/file-20220808-22-4wrly6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5848%2C3904&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Multiple generations living under one roof is becoming increasingly common.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/multigenerational-living--a-strategy-to-cope-with-unaffordable-housing" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Over the past 20 years, <a href="https://data.oecd.org/price/housing-prices.htm">housing prices in Canada have increased at double the rate of income growth</a>. As a result, a growing number of Canadian households are grappling with housing affordability. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/professionals/housing-markets-data-and-research/housing-data/data-tables/household-characteristics/characteristics-households-core-housing-need-canada-pt-cmas">10 per cent of Canadian households are spending at least 30 per cent of their pretax income on housing</a>. </p>
<p>At the same time, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220713/dq220713a-eng.pdf">the share of multigenerational households has also increased by 45 per cent</a> — <a href="https://vanierinstitute.ca/sharing-a-roof-multigenerational-homes-in-canada-2021-census-update/">more than any other family living arrangement</a>. Most of these <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220713/dq220713a-eng.pdf">multigenerational households include grandparents and young children</a>. </p>
<p>The simultaneous rise in housing prices and share of multigenerational households raises the following questions: First, is moving in with aging parents a strategy adopted by young families to reduce their housing vulnerability? Second, who benefits the most by moving in with grandparents?</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/t657q">study addressed these questions</a> and examined whether moving in with grandparents may be a solution to unaffordable housing. </p>
<p>Living with grandparents may offer young families a way to reduce their housing costs, decrease their housing vulnerability, and free up resources for food, medical care and education. </p>
<p>By moving in with grandparents, young families can avoid a host of negative outcomes associated with housing vulnerability, including children’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2005.9521542">poorer academic outcomes</a>, <a href="https://housingmatters.urban.org/articles/how-housing-affects-childrens-outcomes">behavioural problems</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2010.08.002">poorer health</a>. </p>
<h2>Unequal distribution of benefits</h2>
<p>The benefits of living in multigenerational households are unevenly distributed. We found that children whose mothers had lower income benefited more from living with their grandparents than those whose mothers had higher income. Similarly, children growing up in single-mother households benefited more from living with their grandparents than those growing up in two-parent households. </p>
<p>Conversely, children with grandparents who had higher income benefited more from living with their grandparents. And those living with grandmothers benefited more than children living solely with their grandfathers. Prior research shows <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbw208">grandmothers usually provide more financial and emotional support to their adult children and grandchildren than grandfathers</a>. </p>
<p>Our findings suggest that multigenerational living is usually a way for grandparents to offer housing assistance and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278435302_Coresidence_between_unmarried_aging_parents_and_their_adult_children_-_Who_moved_in_with_whom_and_why">transfer material resources to their adult children</a>. The implication is that young families generally benefit more financially from this living situation than aging parents. </p>
<p>Low-income grandparents are an exception. By moving in with their adult children, they can receive financial help, emotional support and care, and may benefit more from multigenerational living than young families. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A grandmother is hugged by her granddaugher." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478141/original/file-20220808-20-cnvglr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478141/original/file-20220808-20-cnvglr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478141/original/file-20220808-20-cnvglr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478141/original/file-20220808-20-cnvglr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478141/original/file-20220808-20-cnvglr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478141/original/file-20220808-20-cnvglr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478141/original/file-20220808-20-cnvglr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children living with grandmothers benefited more than children living solely with their grandfathers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ekaterina Shakharova/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Adverse effects of multigenerational living</h2>
<p>The benefits of multigenerational living, however, may come at the expense of sufficient space and privacy. These living arrangements were more likely than two-generation households to be overcrowded. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.92.5.758">Living in overcrowded housing is associated with poorer health outcomes</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00324720127685">poorer relationship quality</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK535289/">more stress</a> for all household members. It can also have a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2011.09.012">negative impact on academic outcomes and increase behavioural problems for children</a>. </p>
<p>Multigenerational living may also negatively impact the financial well-being of grandparents. Some older adults may be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2019.1653360">paying for their adult children’s expenses as well as their own</a>. This may place a strain on their finances or generate a need for them to delay retirement. </p>
<h2>Policy implications</h2>
<p>Some families and older adults may <em>prefer</em> to live in multigenerational households. However, for others, a shortage of affordable housing may be creating conditions that <em>force</em> them to move in with their aging parents. </p>
<p>So, what can the government do to eliminate the conditions that force some families into multigenerational households?</p>
<p>The Canadian government must increase housing supply. Increasing interest rates can temporarily decrease pressures in the housing market by reducing demand. However, <a href="https://economics.cibccm.com/cds?id=2584c18b-2e87-4a1c-83c8-17bb64d8bb4d&flag=E">it can also exacerbate the housing shortage and affordability crisis over the long run through cancellations in housing construction projects</a>. </p>
<p>According to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, <a href="https://assets.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/sites/cmhc/professional/housing-markets-data-and-research/housing-research/research-reports/2022/housing-shortages-canada-solving-affordability-crisis-en.pdf?rev=88308aef-f14a-4dbb-b692-6ebbddcd79a0">Canada needs 3.5 million new homes to reach affordability</a>.</p>
<p>The government must also produce estimates of unmet housing demands that go beyond projecting the quantity of the housing shortage. It must forecast the <em>quantity</em> and <em>types</em> of housing for which there is unmet demand and meet it. For example, the shortage of large housing units may be part of the reason why multigenerational households have a higher risk of living in overcrowded housing.</p>
<p>Overall, our study reveals that the housing affordability crisis is having a pervasive impact on Canadian society. It is imposing constraints that alter the structure and composition of Canadian families. It is also forcing many families to absorb some of the effects of a social problem: the shortage of affordable housing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188114/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Choi receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sagi Ramaj receives Doctoral funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Our study reveals that the housing affordability crisis is having a pervasive impact on Canadian society. It is imposing constraints that alter the structure and composition of Canadian families.Kate Choi, Associate Professor, Sociology, Western UniversitySagi Ramaj, PhD Student, Department of Sociology, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1861062022-07-20T12:21:43Z2022-07-20T12:21:43ZLosing a grandmother can have long-lasting mental health effects for kids and adolescents, a new study finds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473719/original/file-20220712-17569-azpdr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6016%2C4016&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research shows that grandparents' involvement in their grandchildren's lives plays a critically important role in a child's overall health and development. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-girl-helping-her-grandmother-while-working-in-royalty-free-image/1124704742?adppopup=true">Mayur Kakade/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>The death of a grandmother can have severe and lasting mental health consequences for both her adult children and grandchildren, according to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100100">our recently published study</a>. </p>
<p>This finding may be surprising, because the death of a grandparent is a normal, even anticipated, part of life. Yet the effects are profound. Losing a grandparent can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100100">increase adolescents’ risk</a> of having a depressed parent and of having higher depressive symptoms themselves. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12016">Decades of research</a> show that grandparents’ involvement and support is beneficial to their grandchildren. This is especially true for kids growing up with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.00537.x">single mothers</a>. Maternal grandparents often act as a safety net, providing benefits like housing stability, child care and financial and emotional support, all of which benefit their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12016">grandchildren’s health and development</a>. </p>
<p>But what happens when a grandparent dies? In our study, we used a <a href="https://fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/documentation">national dataset</a> on a sample of mother and adolescent pairs whom researchers have interviewed multiple times since the child’s birth. We analyzed whether a maternal grandparent’s death during later childhood or early adolescence affected adolescents’, or their mothers’, depressive symptoms, net of depressive symptoms before the loss. </p>
<p>Following a grandmother’s death, adult daughters were more likely to become depressed relative to other women. Adult daughters experienced this increase in depression for up to seven years following the death. Adolescent boys who lost their grandmother in the prior seven years also had higher depressive symptoms than their peers. We found no statistically significant increase in depression following a grandfather’s death. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0004867414533834">Adolescent mental health has worsened</a> in recent decades. Experts stress the potential for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01332-9">COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate</a> this concerning trend, pointing to the financial hardships, school disruptions and social isolation as prime reasons young people’s mental health could decline further. </p>
<p>The mental health effects of losing a loved one to COVID-19 have been curiously overlooked. Although young people experience low COVID-19 mortality rates, COVID-19 mortality has intimately affected millions of young people. Tens if not hundreds of thousands of youths in the U.S. have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.0161">lost parents to COVID-19</a>. And as of June 2022, our statistical models suggest that approximately <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007476117">4 million people</a> in the U.S. have lost a grandparent to COVID-19 in a mere two years – representing a significant increase in the burden of grandparental death experienced <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100100">prior to the pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>Our study suggests that this dramatic increase in the number of grieving adolescents will increase rates of depression in the U.S.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>A troubling possibility is that having a grandparent die of COVID-19 is even harder for adolescents than the pre-pandemic losses that we studied. COVID-19 deaths epitomize “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2020.1764320">bad deaths</a>” – painful, frequently sudden deaths that happen alone and often strip families of the chance to say goodbye. </p>
<p>In other recent research, we found that adults who lost a spouse to COVID-19 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbac085">face higher rates of depression and loneliness</a> than those whose spouse died right before the pandemic. Future research can assess whether losing a grandparent to COVID-19 has more severe or far-reaching consequences for adolescents than our analysis of pre-pandemic data shows. </p>
<p>We are also still examining the gendered nature of our study’s findings. Why does the loss of a grandmother seem to have deeper and longer-lasting effects than that of a grandfather? Why are boys uniquely vulnerable after losing a grandmother? </p>
<p>Gender socialization could explain boys’ higher depressive symptoms after a grandmother’s death. Adolescent boys may feel pressure to internalize their emotions. Additionally, a grandfather’s death could affect adolescents in other ways, such as their school performance and grades, maintenance of healthy relationships or risk behaviors. </p>
<p>Even as this study offers a small window into the distress of losing a grandparent, our findings underline the pressing need for adolescents and their parents to have access to support services as they navigate the cascading consequences that such a loss can set in motion – an all-too-common experience in the COVID-19 era.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186106/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Smith-Greenaway receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She is a member of the Evermore Foundation's scientific advisory board. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashton Verdery receives funding from the National Institute on Aging, which is a part of the National Institutes of Health. He is affiliated with Evermore Foundation as a member of its scientific advisory board.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Margolis receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Livings does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Models shows that some 4 million people in the US have lost a grandparent to COVID-19. But until now, there has been a dearth of research into the mental health effects of losing a grandparent.Emily Smith-Greenaway, Associate Professor of Sociology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesAshton Verdery, Professor of Sociology, Demography and Social Data Analytics, Penn StateMichelle Livings, PhD Student in Population, Health and Place, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesRachel Margolis, Associate Professor of Sociology, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1806512022-04-08T12:33:44Z2022-04-08T12:33:44ZWhat is a 529 college savings plan? An economist explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456925/original/file-20220407-14-wjb0pb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=60%2C0%2C6649%2C4466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 529 plan can pay for up to $10,000 a year for tuition at K-12 schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/father-and-son-counting-money-at-home-royalty-free-image/924565162?adppopup=true">MoMo Productions/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The college savings plan known as a “529” is often touted as a <a href="https://smartasset.com/investing/529-investment-strategy-by-age">smart way to save</a> for a child’s college education. But these plans involve more than just putting away money for college. Here, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zQIzkdYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Robert H. Scott III</a>, an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2017.1320911">expert on 529s</a>, shines light on how the plans work.</em></p>
<h2>What are 529 plans?</h2>
<p>A 529 college savings plan is an investment account that families can open to save for college by investing money that grows tax-free. The name of the account comes from <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/529">Section 529</a> of the U.S. tax code.</p>
<p>The money can be used for <a href="https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/what-you-can-pay-for-with-a-529-plan">qualifying education expenses</a>, such as tuition, room and board, textbooks, computers and travel. </p>
<p>People can add money to a 529 account whenever they like, or set up automatic withdrawals from their checking account.</p>
<p>At the end of 2020, Americans had invested a
<a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/246233/savings-plan-assets-of-american-households/">total of US$425 billion</a> in 529 plans. In 2020, <a href="https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/average-529-plan-balance-how-do-you-compare">the average 529 plan had $25,644</a>, but average balances <a href="https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/average-529-plan-balance-how-do-you-compare">vary by the age of the child</a>. This amount is almost exactly the total cost of only one year at an <a href="https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college">in-state, four-year college</a>. The average total cost of one year at a private school is more than double that amount.</p>
<p>When money is placed into a 529, it’s not as if the money is just sitting there. You will have several possible investment options to choose from that comprise stocks, bonds or a combination of the two. There are usually preset investment portfolios based on a child’s age. When a child is young, these portfolios are mostly stocks and are invested more aggressively. But as the child ages, the portfolio automatically transfers more money to bonds, which are usually less volatile. So the effectiveness of a 529 plan depends on how well the stock market performs.</p>
<h2>Is the money only for the first four years of college?</h2>
<p>It is also possible to use 529 plans for graduate school. So if a child earns a full scholarship as an undergraduate, then the money from the child’s 529 plan can be saved for graduate school.</p>
<p>A recent change in 529 plans allows them to be used for education before college. More specifically, they can be used to pay up to $10,000 per year for tuition at K-12 schools. </p>
<p>For college, however, there are no limits on how much can be withdrawn to cover education expenses.</p>
<h2>Do 529 plans vary by state?</h2>
<p>Every state in the United States, plus Washington, D.C., has its own 529 plan. However, not all plans are the same. For that reason, it is important to research which plans have the lowest fees, the best investment options and the <a href="https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1062917/the-top-529-education-savings-plans-of-2021">best overall returns</a>.</p>
<p>There are no residency requirements. In other words, you don’t have to live in a particular state to invest in the state’s 529 plan. However, if a state offers a tax deduction for investing in its 529 plan, then you have to live in that state to get the deduction.</p>
<h2>What if the beneficiary of the 529 doesn’t go to college?</h2>
<p>It is possible to move funds in 529 plan accounts from one beneficiary to another. Beneficiaries who do not use their 529 plan funds can even transfer the account to their own children or another family member without penalty. </p>
<p>The biggest problem with 529 plans is that money not used for qualified education expenses incurs a 10% penalty on investment earnings. Those earnings are also subject to federal and sometimes state income taxes if they are not used for education expenses that qualify under a 529 plan.</p>
<h2>Who should invest in 529 plans?</h2>
<p>Families unable to qualify for financial aid are the target investors for 529 plans.</p>
<p>A 529 plan account with a large balance could keep a student from being eligible for financial aid, even if the balance is much less than the overall cost of the degree. So, in cases like this, a 529 plan could cost families money rather than help.</p>
<p>Grandparents whose grandchildren are unlikely to qualify for financial aid <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/tips-for-grandparents-using-a-529-plan-to-save-for-college">are also common investors</a> in 529 plans. </p>
<p>Parents, grandparents or anyone with the ability and desire can contribute up to $16,000 each year if a child’s parents are not married – or $32,000 if they are married – and not pay gift taxes. People can contribute up to this maximum amount each year for each beneficiary. So, if a grandparent has two grandchildren whose parents are married, they can contribute $32,000 in one year to each child’s 529 plan.</p>
<p>Each state has different rules on how much someone can contribute over a lifetime to any one 529 plan, but <a href="https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/maximum-529-plan-contribution-limits-by-state#:%7E:text=Annual%20529%20plan%20contribution%20limits,the%20annual%20gift%20tax%20exclusion.">it ranges</a> from $235,000 in states such as Georgia and Mississippi to $550,000 in Missouri.</p>
<h2>Do 529 plans work?</h2>
<p>Yes. They are a way for families to invest money in the stock market and, if all goes well, enjoy financial gains that they can withdraw for their children’s education without paying taxes. They work best under several conditions. </p>
<p>First, if a family is unable to qualify for financial aid, 529 plans offer an effective way to save for college because the money is invested in the stock market and can grow faster than other options, such as savings accounts. Plus, the gains are not taxed as they would be if invested in a non-529 plan investment account. </p>
<p>Second, because the investment time horizon is short – possibly less than 18 years – your money does not have much time to grow, so you have to invest early. There is no age limit for beneficiaries of 529s. You can start one for yourself or someone else at any age.</p>
<p>Third, if you live in one of the states that offer a tax deduction for investing in a 529 plan, that <a href="https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/how-much-is-your-state-s-529-plan-tax-deduction-really-worth">is a factor to consider</a>. Specifically, a 529 holder should look at whether the value of the tax deduction is large enough to outweigh the fact that there are fewer or worse investment options.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Fourth, anyone can contribute to a person’s 529 plan, so it makes a great gift that will not end up being broken or thrown away.</p>
<p>Fifth, grandparents or other relatives, and even family friends, can set up 529 plans for grandchildren, stepchildren, nieces and nephews. In general, it’s probably more efficient to have one 529 plan, but some people like to retain some control over the plan they invest in, so some kids may have several. For instance, I have 529 plans for both of my kids, but their grandparents have 529 plan accounts for them, too.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/college-savings-penalties">There are other situations</a> that allow you to withdraw 529 plan funds and not be subjected to the 10% penalty, such as when a beneficiary dies, becomes disabled or earns a full scholarship. Relatives might find this type of saving <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/08/why-are-we-so-emotional-about-money">more emotionally rewarding</a> than gifting money now or giving a larger inheritance at death.</p>
<h2>Are there any drawbacks?</h2>
<p>There are two primary problems with 529 plans, even for families that might benefit from them the most. </p>
<p>First, timing when to withdraw money is more challenging than, say, for retirement. For example, if the market is having a down year, but a beneficiary is in college and you need to pay tuition, then the benefits can be <a href="https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/market-timing-doesnt-work-well-for-529-college-savings-plans">smaller overall</a>. Say you have $50,000 invested in a 529 plan, and the market falls 10% right before you withdraw the money. If that happens, then you would only have $45,000 to withdraw. On the other hand, if the market increased 10% right before you needed the money, then you would have $55,000 to withdraw. </p>
<p>Second, your investment options are limited. If your state offers a tax deduction for investing in a 529 plan you might choose to invest in your state’s plan even if that plan might not be very good, such as if it has <a href="https://www.savingforcollege.com/529_fee_study/">expensive fees</a>. Alternatively, you might choose to invest in another state’s 529 plan and lose the state tax deduction, but have more investment options and fewer fees. This could save you more money in the long run.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180651/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert H. Scott III does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>College savings plans – known as 529s – can be effective for certain families. Still, it pays to know the ins and outs of how the plans work, an expert says.Robert H. Scott III, Professor, Dept. of Economics, Finance & Real Estate, Monmouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1737392022-01-21T02:39:03Z2022-01-21T02:39:03ZKids whose grandparents are overweight are almost twice as likely to struggle with obesity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441235/original/file-20220118-25-113hyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C52%2C6937%2C4380&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-grandparents-grandchildren-sitting-desk-600w-646595593.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>School holidays can be a special time for extended families to gather. Children may see their grandparents at seasonal gatherings or as part of childcare arrangements to help working parents. New <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obr.13405">research</a> suggests the biology, environment and the food they share contributes to children’s future health.</p>
<p>According to the World Health Organization, <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/06-05-2021-the-unicef-who-wb-joint-child-malnutrition-estimates-group-released-new-data-for-2021">39 million children under five years are overweight</a>. Some 25% of Australian children and adolescents <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/overweight-obesity/overweight-obesity-australian-children-adolescents/summary">are overweight or obese</a>.</p>
<p>How parents contribute to their offspring’s obesity risk is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-789X.2010.00751.x">well established</a> but the link between grandparents and grandchildren has been less clear. Our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obr.13405">systematic review</a> of studies involving more than 200,000 people around the world confirms obesity is transmitted across multiple generations of families. We still need to figure out why and how to break this cycle. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/4-ways-to-get-your-kids-off-the-couch-these-summer-holidays-123918">4 ways to get your kids off the couch these summer holidays</a>
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<h2>Setting up for a lifetime of health issues</h2>
<p>Obesity among children and adolescents is associated with developing health problems. These include high blood pressure, cholesterol imbalance, insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus, accelerated growth and maturity, orthopaedic difficulties, psychosocial problems, increased risk of heart disease and premature mortality. </p>
<p>We examined the current global evidence on the association between grandparents who are overweight or obese and the healthy weight status of their grandchildren. We looked at 25 studies that involved 238,771 people from 17 countries. The combined data confirms obesity is transmitted multigenerationally – not just from parent to child but also from grandparent to grandchild.</p>
<p>We found children whose grandparents are obese or overweight are almost twice as likely to be obese or overweight compared to those whose grandparents are “normal” weight.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-ban-junk-food-in-schools-we-asked-five-experts-131566">Should we ban junk food in schools? We asked five experts</a>
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<h2>Nature and nurture?</h2>
<p>Further research is needed into how children’s obesity status is influenced by their grandparents but there are likely two pathways at work. The influence could be indirect via parents’ genes or occur directly through the roles played by grandparents in children’s upbringing. </p>
<p>Let’s start with biological factors. Both egg and sperm cells <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aad7977">contain molecules</a> that respond to the nutritional intake of parents. This means traits that are susceptible to high weight gain can be passed on from grandparents to parents and then to their grandchildren. And <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6226269/">evidence shows</a> genetics, environmental factors, lifestyle and eating habits all play key roles in predisposing individuals to obesity.</p>
<p>What we eat and feed our family members can lead to the expression of certain genetic traits (a term referred to as epigenetics) which can then be <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27288829/">transferred</a> to successive generations. Due to shared familial, genetic, and environmental factors, obesity tends to aggregate within immediate families and studies have consistently reported an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5421118/">intergenerational transmission of obesity</a> from parents to children.</p>
<p>Food intake can also influence health and biology across multiple generations. In Sweden, a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obr.13405">study reported</a> adequate food for paternal grandparents at ten years of age reduced heart disease and diabetes and increased longevity among their grandchildren.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441236/original/file-20220118-19-b6z91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="baking cupcakes pulled from over by adult and child" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441236/original/file-20220118-19-b6z91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441236/original/file-20220118-19-b6z91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441236/original/file-20220118-19-b6z91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441236/original/file-20220118-19-b6z91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441236/original/file-20220118-19-b6z91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441236/original/file-20220118-19-b6z91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441236/original/file-20220118-19-b6z91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Grandparents’ influence on their grandchildren’s obesity risk may be biological or a result of dietary choices.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cropped-image-grandmother-granddaughter-cooking-on-1037964661">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Food and family</h2>
<p>So, grandparents’ weight status and choices about what and how much is eaten in their home could influence their grandchildren’s weight directly or via the children’s parents. These influences may be greater or less significant depending on the role grandparents play as primary care givers or in shared living arrangements. According to the recent Australia’s Seniors’ <a href="https://nationalseniors.com.au/research/health-and-aged-care/australian-grandparents-care">survey</a>, one in every four Australian grandparents provides primary care to their grandchildren.</p>
<p>Grandparents’ role as caregivers significantly affects children’s healthy eating knowledge, attitude, and behaviours. This might be seen in the meals shared, recipes passed down or special treats for loved ones. Such habits can add to childhood obesity risks, above and beyond genetic factors. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441237/original/file-20220118-20992-17u4pao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="family table with older man feeding young child" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441237/original/file-20220118-20992-17u4pao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441237/original/file-20220118-20992-17u4pao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441237/original/file-20220118-20992-17u4pao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441237/original/file-20220118-20992-17u4pao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441237/original/file-20220118-20992-17u4pao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441237/original/file-20220118-20992-17u4pao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441237/original/file-20220118-20992-17u4pao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Grandparents regular provide childcare and therefore meals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/grandpa-feeding-girl-healthy-little-600w-227939680.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-one-in-four-aussie-kids-are-overweight-or-obese-were-failing-them-and-we-need-a-plan-114005">More than one in four Aussie kids are overweight or obese: we're failing them, and we need a plan</a>
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<h2>Working on prevention</h2>
<p>Our research shows the importance of including grandparents in obesity prevention strategies. In addition to parents, grandparents could be oriented to provide guidance on responsible feeding, recognising hunger and fullness, setting limits, offering healthy foods and using repeated exposure to promote acceptance. They can help encourage regular exercise and discourage coercive feeding practices on their grandchildren. </p>
<p>While our study shows a multigenerational link in the transmission of obesity, most of the available evidence comes from high-income countries – predominantly America and European countries. More studies, especially from low-income countries, would be helpful. </p>
<p>Further investigation into the effect of grandparents on grandchildren’s obesity across different races and ethnicities is also needed. Grandparents have varied social and cultural roles in the upbringing of their grandchildren around the world. More data could help design effective obesity prevention programs that recognise the vital importance of grandparents.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173739/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edmund Wedam Kanmiki does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abdullah Mamun receives funding from NHMRC, ARC, Queensland Health, and Health and Wellbeing Queensland. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yaqoot Fatima received funding from NHMRC, MRFF, Western Queensland Primary Health Network, Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre, Queensland Health, and Health and Wellbeing Queensland. She is a member of the Indigenous Sleep Health Working Party of the Australasian Sleep Association.</span></em></p>Whether it’s a special treat or family traits, children’s risk of being overweight or obese is strongly linked to their grandparents.Edmund Wedam Kanmiki, PhD Candidate, The University of QueenslandAbdullah Mamun, Associate Professor, The University of QueenslandYaqoot Fatima, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1697312021-11-02T19:06:24Z2021-11-02T19:06:24ZShould I take a gift? As borders open, how to prepare for reuniting with your grandkids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428729/original/file-20211027-23-1e5ctih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7951%2C5297&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As border restrictions lift, family reunions are being planned around Australia. This is an exciting but also uncertain time, particularly for grandparents who have been separated from grandchildren. </p>
<p>Over the past months (and in some cases, years), grandchildren will have grown and changed. They may have new interests, routines and skills. You may even have the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474704919875948">transformative experience</a> of meeting a new grandchild for the very first time. </p>
<p>With older grandchildren, <a href="https://theconversation.com/grandparent-grandchildren-video-calls-are-vital-during-covid-19-here-are-simple-ways-to-improve-them-141534">digital technologies</a> may have kept you in contact and up-to-date. But with younger grandchildren, this is harder, and it may be time to rekindle relationships. </p>
<p>We are researchers investigating the roles grandparents play and the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21582041.2018.1433317">influence</a> this has on families and communities. So, how can grandparents make the most of this time? </p>
<h2>The special role of grandparents</h2>
<p>Due to increased lifespans, grandparents have more time and ability to invest in their grandchildren than <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963721411403269">ever before</a> in human history.</p>
<p>The grandparent-grandchild relationship can be a very special one. A grandparent’s involvement in a child’s life, whether through shared actives or a listening ear, is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2009.00215.x">linked</a> to the child’s well-being. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Grandparents hug a baby." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429276/original/file-20211029-23-1y65rbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429276/original/file-20211029-23-1y65rbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429276/original/file-20211029-23-1y65rbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429276/original/file-20211029-23-1y65rbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429276/original/file-20211029-23-1y65rbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429276/original/file-20211029-23-1y65rbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429276/original/file-20211029-23-1y65rbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers are finding increasing evidence of the importance of grandparent-grandchild relationships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The benefits depend on your family situation, but can include improved psychological adjustment for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2011.00379.x">grandchildren</a>, increased <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S004727941700071X">workforce participation</a> for mothers, and a longer and happier life for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513816300721">grandparents</a>.</p>
<h2>The importance of asking questions</h2>
<p>When preparing to see your grandchildren again, our first suggestion is to ask your grandchild’s parents what they think is a good idea for your first catch-up. What does your grandchild enjoy doing at the moment? What is their daily routine? Is there anything to avoid?</p>
<p>If you are meeting a grandchild for the very first time, bear in mind the parents have gone through huge changes since you last met. As with older children, ask the parents what will suit them in terms of visit type and time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-how-hard-it-is-for-flying-grannies-to-care-for-their-australian-grandkids-169464">New research shows how hard it is for 'flying grannies' to care for their Australian grandkids</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Be <a href="https://raisingchildren.net.au/grown-ups/grandparents/family-relationships/being-a-grandparent">open and honest</a> about what support you think you can provide, and be aware the parents needs may change (they may want more or less help than they anticipated). </p>
<p>When it comes to discussing the changes a new baby has brought, grandparents are trying to juggle in their mind the thrill of participating in their grandchild’s life, without disrupting or overstepping parents’ boundaries. From our yet to be published research, we understand this is not a simple matter for many families, but starting the conversation is important in maintaining these valuable relationships. </p>
<h2>Persistent, not pushy</h2>
<p>Your grandchildren may be feeling shy when you first meet. So even though this may have been a longed-for reunion, you may need to tread carefully. </p>
<p>This is perfectly normal and can be overwhelming for everyone. Just take your time, and let them get to know you again. Your first instinct will be to catch up on the thousands of lost hugs, but it may work better stay close by and let them come to you. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Grandparents playing with grandkids." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428728/original/file-20211027-27-42qfit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428728/original/file-20211027-27-42qfit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428728/original/file-20211027-27-42qfit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428728/original/file-20211027-27-42qfit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428728/original/file-20211027-27-42qfit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428728/original/file-20211027-27-42qfit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428728/original/file-20211027-27-42qfit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With young children, you don’t have to plan something fancy for your first catch-up.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The good news for grandparents is that several research projects have shown what grandchildren <a href="http://www.hoepflinger.com/fhtop/Grandchildren.pdf">really want</a> is simply for grandparents to be “there when needed”. </p>
<p>So just “being there” – interested and available – for your first visit is perfectly fine. This helps reduce expectations of what you feel you need to do. </p>
<h2>Gifts</h2>
<p>Your first inclination may be to bring something exciting to play with together. But on top of seeing each other again, rushing in with a new treat might be too much. You will need to read the room. </p>
<p>Consider taking something small, or maybe you can keep something in the car and bring it out once everyone has warmed up. </p>
<h2>Parallel play</h2>
<p>Play is obviously central to children’s learning and experience. Early in life, however, this may mean playing alone, which may be confusing for some of us. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-you-shouldnt-force-the-kids-to-hug-granny-at-christmas-108059">Why you shouldn’t force the kids to hug Granny at Christmas</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A good way to work with this while rekindling your relationship is parallel play, particularly if a child is aged between two and five. Parallel play involves playing next to your grandchild and letting them come to you when they are ready. </p>
<p>This is one way you might need to put the patience and persistence we discussed earlier into practice.</p>
<h2>Let grandchildren lead (within reason)</h2>
<p>In the same vein, don’t feel as though you need to take the lead when working out what to do with your grandchild, either. Or that your idea for reading a certain book or doing a particular puzzle is the one your grandchild will go with.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Grandparents push a grandchild on a swing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428727/original/file-20211027-15-34v14w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428727/original/file-20211027-15-34v14w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428727/original/file-20211027-15-34v14w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428727/original/file-20211027-15-34v14w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428727/original/file-20211027-15-34v14w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428727/original/file-20211027-15-34v14w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428727/original/file-20211027-15-34v14w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Seeing your grandchild again could be as simple as a walk to the park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Often, seemingly simple activities like a walk to a park are the most rewarding. Here your grandchild has the opportunity to show you about their world and what they like to do on their terms. It is also a good way to see how your grandchild has grown and developed.</p>
<p>We want to show our unconditional affection and love for our grandchildren, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0038026120916104">this feels natural</a>, and we know it can be so valuable.</p>
<p>But in the the early stages of getting to know each other again, don’t put pressure on you or them. Being available, interested, curious and patient is enough.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Rebecca Bullingham, a masters student in medical and health science at Edith Cowan University, contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Coall receives funding from Lotterywest and is an active researcher working with grandparents contributing to some of this research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shantha Karthigesu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over the past months (and in some cases, years), grandchildren will have grown and changed.David Coall, Senior Lecturer, Edith Cowan UniversityShantha Karthigesu, Teaching and Research Scholar, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1694642021-10-27T00:56:20Z2021-10-27T00:56:20ZNew research shows how hard it is for ‘flying grannies’ to care for their Australian grandkids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428362/original/file-20211025-25-4b32bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7224%2C4596&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Australia, grandparents are the most <a href="https://nationalseniors.com.au/uploads/09151356PAC_GrandparentsChildcareLabourForceParticipation_Report_FINAL_Web_0.pdf">popular</a> form of childcare. Yet with almost 30% of Australians <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/migration-australia/latest-release">born overseas</a>, for many families, grandparents are not close by. </p>
<p>COVID-19 <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/dual-nationals-rush-to-book-flights-after-parents-get-the-nod-as-immediate-family-20211021-p59208.html">border closures</a> have made family reunions almost impossible for the past 18 months. </p>
<p>But our <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sp/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/sp/jxab024/6358599">new study</a> on grandparents who come to Australia to care for their grandchildren shows that even in “normal” times, many migrant families struggle to get the childcare they need. </p>
<h2>Our study</h2>
<p>Apart from the importance of family and cultural connections, grandparents are a highly <a href="https://nationalseniors.com.au/uploads/09151356PAC_GrandparentsChildcareLabourForceParticipation_Report_FINAL_Web_0.pdf">sought-after</a> form of childcare because formal early childhood education and care (such as daycare) is so <a href="https://theconversation.com/nearly-40-of-australian-families-cant-afford-childcare-163497">expensive</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Grandmother with grandchild." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428370/original/file-20211025-27-15b3lgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428370/original/file-20211025-27-15b3lgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428370/original/file-20211025-27-15b3lgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428370/original/file-20211025-27-15b3lgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428370/original/file-20211025-27-15b3lgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428370/original/file-20211025-27-15b3lgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428370/original/file-20211025-27-15b3lgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grandparent care is flexible, which particularly suits parents with shift work or variable work hours.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Grandparents who live overseas, who we call “migrant grandparents”, provide two types of childcare. This includes the so-called “<a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1023/A:1007022110306.pdf">flying grannies</a>” who do regular short trips, and those who permanently relocate in order to provide care for grandchildren. </p>
<p>In 2019, we <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sp/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/sp/jxab024/6358599">interviewed</a> 12 migrant grandparents from China, Vietnam and Nepal about their experiences. The research consisted of three focus groups with these grandparents, all of whom provide regular childcare for their grandchildren in the Sydney metropolitan area.</p>
<h2>What migrant grandparents do</h2>
<p>The migrant grandparents provided intensive childcare for their grandchildren. This support, they said, enabled their adult children to “get ahead” in their new country. One grandmother from Vietnam put it this way:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Thinking about my daughter, [she] can’t contribute to the country because she has to stay home to take care of her daughter and family[…] When I come here, I take care of my grandchild and my daughter goes to work. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>A grandfather from Nepal put it this way: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My daughter-in-law is studying RN [registered nurse]. She is completing the course within six months […] If we are here [it is] very easy. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Australia’s migration system</h2>
<p>In recent decades, Australia’s migration system has increasingly prioritised younger, skilled migrants. At the same time, rules on family reunions with ageing relatives have become <a href="https://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/1_Policy_Brief__Temporary_Sponsored_Parent_Visa_Migrant_Grandparents_and_Transnational_Family_Life_2018.pdf">tougher</a>. </p>
<p>Permanently relocating to Australia as a grandparent is difficult and expensive.
One option is a “<a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing">contributory visa</a>,” but this costs about $50,000. The other permanent option for grandparents is the “non-contributory” visa, which is cheaper but has a prohibitive <a href="https://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/1_Policy_Brief__Temporary_Sponsored_Parent_Visa_Migrant_Grandparents_and_Transnational_Family_Life_2018.pdf">30-plus</a> year wait. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Passenger planes taking off and landing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428375/original/file-20211025-13-1kduqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428375/original/file-20211025-13-1kduqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428375/original/file-20211025-13-1kduqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428375/original/file-20211025-13-1kduqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428375/original/file-20211025-13-1kduqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428375/original/file-20211025-13-1kduqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428375/original/file-20211025-13-1kduqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australia’s migration system has had a focus on younger skilled migrants over family reunions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These visas also have strict criteria, which require at least half of an applicant’s children to be Australian citizens or permanent residents. They must also provide assurances they will repay any social security debts incurred. In 2018-2019, there <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/migration-trends-highlights-2018-19.PDF">were</a> 5,587 contributory and 1,218 non-contributory parent visas offered. </p>
<p>The majority of grandparents are more likely to rely on visitor visas that allow them to stay in Australia for around three months, sometimes 12 months (precise numbers are not available, as grandparents are not singled out in government data on tourist/visitor visas). </p>
<p>In 2019, the federal government introduced a <a href="https://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/1_Policy_Brief__Temporary_Sponsored_Parent_Visa_Migrant_Grandparents_and_Transnational_Family_Life_2018.pdf">new visa</a>. Costing between A$5,000 and A$10,000, it allows citizens and permanent residents to temporarily bring their parents to Australia for three or five years renewable up to a maximum of ten years. During their stay, visa holders do not have access to public healthcare or social security and cannot do paid work. </p>
<h2>The impact on migrant grandparents</h2>
<p>Migrant grandparents we spoke to talked in-depth about the challenges of Australia’s visa system. Many were simply unable to afford a permanent visa. As a Nepalese grandfather said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think if we pay $50,000 then we can get a permanent visa. So we can’t do that. So for us this [temporary visitor visa] is the only option. We are not satisfied, but what to do?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nepalese and Vietnamese participants reported how they used revolving visa applications to maintain contact with their families in Australia. This required constant travel between Sydney, their home city, or third countries. Many said they were now on their fourth or fifth visa. As one Vietnamese grandfather said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I stay a maximum of three months and then I go back to Vietnam. This is the fourth time I’ve come to Sydney. For this visit, my wife and I need to leave Australia to go back to Vietnam in about one week to follow the conditions of our visa. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Chinese grandparents in our study were all able to afford the “contributory” visas that provided much greater continuity and security. But even these created vulnerabilities. Although the visa was permanent, grandparents were still unsure about their entitlements and worried about accessing the health and aged care they might need as they grew older. An interpreter explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They [the grandparents] didn’t know whether the government can help them, when they’re getting old. So, they need someone who can speak their language, to look after them, to support them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Their dependence on their children to qualify to be in Australia also created the potential for exploitative relationships. </p>
<h2>The impact on parents and children</h2>
<p>The temporary visas not only create problems for grandparents, they are also a source of instability for children who miss their grandparents’ care. As one grandmother told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Every time when I’m back there [in Vietnam], my granddaughter, she misses her grandmother and she asks, ‘Why does our grandmother need to go back there? I miss you. Who will take me to school?’ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This uncertainty about grandparent care also made it very difficult for adult children to find and maintain decent employment. </p>
<p>One Vietnamese grandmother explained how each time her three-month visa expired, her daughter had to give up work, because she could not afford daycare. This pattern had been recurring for ten years.</p>
<h2>Where to next?</h2>
<p>Our study revealed Australia’s migration and childcare regimes do not match up well. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nearly-40-of-australian-families-cant-afford-childcare-163497">Nearly 40% of Australian families can't 'afford' childcare</a>
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</em>
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<p>Even with the relatively new (2019) visa, getting to Australia as a migrant grandparent is uncertain and for many, impossibly expensive. It is also poorly supported when it comes to healthcare and social security – leaving this group of grandparents vulnerable as they age.</p>
<p>Our research highlights the need for clearer, more accessible visa pathways for migrant grandparents. It is also (yet another) reason to create more affordable early childhood education and care for all families in Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169464/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Myra Hamilton receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a Board Director of Council on the Ageing NSW. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Hill receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Kintominas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new study shows how migrant families struggle to get the childcare they need and how an easier visa system would help.Myra Hamilton, Principal Research Fellow, University of SydneyAngela Kintominas, Scientia PhD Scholar, UNSW SydneyElizabeth Hill, Associate professor, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1653532021-09-23T14:08:37Z2021-09-23T14:08:37ZChildren are losing caregivers to COVID-19: they need support<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419974/original/file-20210908-15-ktc1cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As the pandemic progresses, many more children will experience devastating losses.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> SDI Productions/GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children have a very <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01897-w">low risk of death or severe disease</a> from COVID-19. As a result, they have not been a core focus in the pandemic response priorities of prevention, detection, and response. But this approach doesn’t take into account the secondary impacts of the pandemic. These include children being orphaned or bereft of their caregivers.</p>
<p>Children are among the most vulnerable members of any society and are thus disproportionately affected by the devastation of this pandemic. If every adult death represents a child who has lost a member of their care network, we are on the cusp of a crisis of care for those children left behind. Without support, these children are set to face adverse consequences, including poverty, abuse, and institutionalisation.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-in-children-the-south-african-experience-and-way-forward-164586">COVID-19 in children: the South African experience and way forward</a>
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</em>
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<p>A first step in supporting these children is to figure out how many have lost guardians to COVID-19. We <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01253-8/fulltext">worked with experts</a> at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organisation, the World Bank, and the United States Agency for International Development to estimate this number. </p>
<p>We used mathematical modelling and mortality and fertility data from 21 countries that account for 76% of the reported global deaths from COVID-19. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/community/orphanhood-report.pdf">findings</a> uncovered a hidden, secondary pandemic. Over the first 14 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, 1.5 million children around the globe lost primary caregivers, including at least one parent or grandparent, to the virus. We also created an <a href="https://imperialcollegelondon.github.io/orphanhood_calculator/#/country/Brazil">online calculator</a> that shows minimum estimates for every country in the world.</p>
<p>As the pandemic progresses, many more children will experience such devastating losses. By September 2021 the number had already risen to 2.3 million. Evidence-based responses to this caregiver loss are urgently needed within global and national responses to COVID-19.</p>
<h2>Crisis of care</h2>
<p>More than 1.1 million children around the world experienced the death of <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01253-8/fulltext">a primary caregiver</a>, such as a parent or custodial grandparent, between March 2020 and April 2021. More than <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01253-8/fulltext">1.5 million</a> children experienced the death of primary caregivers as well as co-residing grandparents (or kin).</p>
<p>Considering custodial grandparents as caregivers in our research is particularly important for an African context. Grandparents <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/data/living-arrangements-older-persons">often</a> serve as guardians, caring for children whose parents migrated for work, have died, or are separated by conflict or war. </p>
<p>Countries with the highest numbers of children losing primary caregivers were South Africa, Peru, the USA, India, Brazil, and Mexico. The number of children orphaned in these countries ranges from 94 ,625 to 1, 562, 000. On the African continent, South Africa has experienced the greatest loss of primary caregivers. Although it is likely that other countries may be under-reporting COVID-19-associated deaths and may have many more orphaned children than we were able to measure. But we know that one in every 200 children in the country lost their primary caregiver. In sum, estimates suggest that every 12 seconds, a child around the world loses a caregiver to the coronavirus pandemic.</p>
<p>As long as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, this devastating toll of caregiver loss will increase daily. For those of us working in child protection, these figures representing the scale of COVID-19-associated orphanhood are deeply concerning. They present serious long-term challenges to the well-being of children.</p>
<p>Children experiencing COVID-19-associated deaths of parents or caregivers are at greater risk of family separation and institutionalisation. Institutionalisation <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanchi/PIIS2352-4642(20)30060-2.pdf">should be avoided</a> because of its clear damage to psychosocial, physical and neural development.</p>
<p>Accelerating equitable vaccine delivery is key to developing a response to this crisis. Over half a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide. But <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/31/world/global-vaccine-supply-inequity.html">more than 75%</a> have been used by the world’s richest countries. To this day, less than <a href="https://www.afro.who.int/news/eight-10-african-countries-miss-crucial-covid-19-vaccination-goal">3%</a> of Africa’s population has been fully vaccinated. This moment is all too reminiscent of when AIDS first rampaged through sub-Saharan Africa. It was a time when lifesaving medicines were available in the United States and Europe, but still years away for other countries.</p>
<h2>Lessons from HIV</h2>
<p>Lessons from mass-fatality outbreaks such as HIV might pave a way forward. </p>
<p>In 2003, the United States’ President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme made <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10797">a ground-breaking commitment</a> to children worldwide affected by the AIDS epidemic. It mandated that 10% of the programme’s funds would support children whose primary caregivers had died of AIDS or had acquired HIV. This programme, through evidence-based interventions and clinical services, continues to support families caring for children who lost caregivers to AIDS. This helps prevent children being placed in institutions.</p>
<p>Such evidence-based responses should inspire the thinking around how best to care for bereaved children. It is essential to help families caring for these children. Psychosocial support groups should be established. Surviving caregivers must be empowered to facilitate grieving and open communication with children about the trauma of losing loved ones. We must advocate for resources to be allocated to this.</p>
<p>Investments are also urgently needed for accelerator programmes adapted to COVID-19, which combine economic interventions, positive parenting, and education support. Our earlier <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(19)30033-1/fulltext">research</a> shows that low-cost approaches focused on family strengthening can improve multiple outcomes for children with deceased caregivers.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(19)30033-1/fulltext">research</a> on development accelerators on the African continent has also shown that programmes like these are feasible and can be affordable. For example, cellphone-based parenting support programmes that help caregivers to manage stress, give them strategies for nonviolent discipline and teach ways to keep children safe from sexual violence can cost as little as about $8 a child.</p>
<p>The grief of these children and their future are the global community’s responsibility. An all-encompassing response to these losses is urgent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165353/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorraine Sherr has received various research grants over the course of my academic career.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucie Cluver receives research grants to the University of Oxford and the University of Cape Town from the Oak Foundation and Global Challenges Research Fund (UK) for this work. </span></em></p>Estimates suggest that every 12 seconds, a child somewhere in the world loses a caregiver to the coronavirus pandemic.Lorraine Sherr, Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology, UCLLucie Cluver, Honorary Professor in Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1659892021-09-20T13:58:07Z2021-09-20T13:58:07Z5 ways immigrant parents support children’s home language learning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420773/original/file-20210913-19-174ee25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1032%2C17%2C4544%2C2991&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Moments of intimate playing, learning and teaching are among the ways that
immigrant parents extend and expand their home languages with their children.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Rajesh Rajput/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is important to preserve and develop a child’s home language for their cultural, linguistic and social development. Research shows that English plays a dominant <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/ycyoungchildren.69.4.86">role in schools and society at large, while children’s diverse home languages are often marginalized.</a> Languages other than English are often not welcomed or encouraged in classrooms.</p>
<p>Marginalizing languages <a href="https://theconversation.com/language-learning-in-canada-needs-to-change-to-reflect-superdiverse-communities-144037">beyond English in school has negative effects on children and classroom cultures</a> by creating environments that suggest the daily language practices of children whose families speak languages other than English aren’t “good enough.” Unsurprisingly, if children feel unwelcome or disrespected in the classroom, this can adversely affect their <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/multilingual-students">learning engagement and academic achievement</a>. </p>
<p>This includes immigrant children — children who were born elsewhere and immigrated with their families, or those who are born in Canada and are being raised by immigrant parents who are establishing new lives in a new country. In families that are seeking to retain a link with their heritage language, the burden of preserving this falls almost exclusively on parents. </p>
<h2>Immigrant parents bring knowledge</h2>
<p>However, schools rarely consider immigrant parents as capable knowledge holders. Immigrant parents <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/canajeducrevucan.35.2.120">and their knowledge are typically seen as having deficits</a>.
As education researcher Yan Guo notes, North American models of parent involvement tend to focus on experiences “relevant to parents of Anglo-Celtic descent than to those from non-English-speaking backgrounds,” as well as assuming “middle-class rather than working-class values and concerns.” </p>
<p>Through <a href="https://doi.org/10.36510/learnland.v14i1.1026">autobiographical narrative inquiry research</a>, I explored the informal teaching and learning practices as an immigrant parent with my children in the home context. </p>
<p>My research highlighted something that other researchers have also documented: <a href="https://doi.org/10.20355/C5QC78">immigrant parents bring a lot of linguistic, cultural and social knowledge</a> to their children’s home language education. Here are some of the ways they pass their knowledge of their home language along.</p>
<p><strong>1. Using home language in daily conversations</strong></p>
<p>Immigrant children’s home literacy-learning environments are characterized by conversations in their home language. Daily oral input is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01168.x">staggeringly important to a child’s language development.</a> When parents engage in daily routines with their children, such as getting dressed, taking baths, eating meals, playing games, taking walks and so on, they elaborate, explain and encourage detailed conversations. </p>
<p>The use of home language becomes especially important after children begin formal schooling and master the English language. Parents who build a home-language-rich environment tend to foster in their children <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798406069797">a more positive attitude</a> toward and higher levels of proficiency in that language.</p>
<p><strong>2. Engaging in inter-generational communication</strong></p>
<p>In some Chinese immigrant families, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01494929.2011.594218">grandparents continue the tradition of providing care to grandchildren.</a> Inter-generational communication plays an important role in the development of immigrant children’s home languages. Everyday communication between generations promote a commitment to speak the child’s heritage language at home.</p>
<p>Children from multilingual homes are often acutely aware, for example, that their grandmother speaks another language, so they pay attention to whom they are talking to, and switch languages in different scenarios.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420782/original/file-20210913-16-lbbaqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420782/original/file-20210913-16-lbbaqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420782/original/file-20210913-16-lbbaqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420782/original/file-20210913-16-lbbaqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420782/original/file-20210913-16-lbbaqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420782/original/file-20210913-16-lbbaqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420782/original/file-20210913-16-lbbaqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In some immigrant families, grandparents play an important role in passing on language and culture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/Alex Green)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A second way grandparents pass on language and culture is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-018-9357-5">by cooking and sharing food with their grandchildren.</a> In such family activities, the two generations converse about making and enjoying authentic cultural cuisines together.</p>
<p><strong>3. Reading picture books in intimate and creative ways</strong></p>
<p>Research has confirmed that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00417">storybook exposure promotes language acquisition</a>.</p>
<p>Many immigrant parents <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2017.1349137">make picture book reading a part of their language practice</a> because picture books have fascinating topics, short, simple text and visual images that help children communicate ideas.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/global-storybooks-from-arabic-to-zulu-freely-available-digital-tales-in-50-languages-127480">Global Storybooks: From Arabic to Zulu, freely available digital tales in 50+ languages</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Rather than a “learning activity,” shared reading at home is a fun family time during which everyone cuddles close and shares a book with lively pictures and vibrant colours in their home language.</p>
<p>My research demonstrated that children’s initiative, imagination and creativity makes picture book reading a rich experience. When parents and children together creatively respond to stories through creative media or performance, the transformative power of drawing, painting, crafting, music, dance and performance is not only a way to understand the stories more deeply, but also a way to create spaces to travel freely across the interwoven language worlds.</p>
<p>It is common in bilingual and multilingual households for children to <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137385765_5">use two or more languages spontaneously and pragmatically</a>. Such <a href="https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/Foundations-of-Bilingual-Education-and-Bilingualism/?k=9781788929882">exchange and use of languages is beneficial </a>for both heritage and dominant language development.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mother reads to two daughters." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420780/original/file-20210913-27-1p0ubxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420780/original/file-20210913-27-1p0ubxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420780/original/file-20210913-27-1p0ubxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420780/original/file-20210913-27-1p0ubxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420780/original/file-20210913-27-1p0ubxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420780/original/file-20210913-27-1p0ubxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420780/original/file-20210913-27-1p0ubxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children’s initiative, imagination and creativity makes picture-book reading a rich experience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/Kindel Media)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>4. Developing language skills through real-life stories</strong></p>
<p>Real-life stories are the most beloved type of storytelling, given the very personal and particular nature of the home landscape. Enacting real-life stories, such as about the day they were born, helps children develop advanced use of their home language, and makes them feel closer to their parents. These are the times when immigrant children learn how to listen to, participate in and understand when, where and how to express themselves in their home language. </p>
<p>In addition, the gradual introduction <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2018.1447943">of more complex vocabulary and expressions supports the development of home language</a>. Sharing past experiences and telling real-life stories also help develop <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716409990191">children’s social capital</a> — children’s sense of belonging to certain social and cultural networks, as well as their access to resources in these groups.</p>
<p>When children engage in real-life storytelling and story-acting, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.05.024">they benefit intellectually, socially, emotionally and linguistically</a>. When children tell and act out true stories, in addition to developing memory and social skills, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10904018.2014.861302">draw on their bodies and manipulate objects</a> in ways that support a foundation for language development.</p>
<p><strong>5. Nurturing passion for early writing</strong></p>
<p>As young as age two, children begin imitating the act of writing by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-012-0563-4">making sketches and symbolic marks</a> that reflect their ideas and thoughts. In immigrant families, early writing includes sketches and symbols in English and in their home language. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420786/original/file-20210913-19-q1qbo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420786/original/file-20210913-19-q1qbo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420786/original/file-20210913-19-q1qbo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420786/original/file-20210913-19-q1qbo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420786/original/file-20210913-19-q1qbo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420786/original/file-20210913-19-q1qbo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420786/original/file-20210913-19-q1qbo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When a child writes in their home language it helps them to make relevant cultural and linguistic connections. Here, ‘apple’ is shown in traditional Chinese characters: 蘋果 (píng guǒ).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In many cases, children <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/education/education-history-theory/language-and-literacy-development-early-childhood?format=PB">learn to read and write through play</a>. Playful introduction to early writing at home helps young children open the door to their home language and the wonder of print. Immigrant parents engage their children in emergent writing at home to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/90015861">introduce the knowledge of sound/symbol connections, the conventions of print, and accessing and conveying meaning</a> through print in their home language system (which might be very different from the dominant language). </p>
<p>Early writing in their home language also helps children construct meaning by <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Handbook-of-Research-on-Reading-Comprehension/Israel-Afflerbach-Alexander-Allen-Allington/p/book/9781462528882">making relevant cultural and linguistic connections</a> between print in their home language and their own lived experiences.</p>
<p>Many immigrant parents extend and expand their children’s home language practices on a daily basis, through moments of intimate teaching, learning and playing. When schools acknowledge, honour and learn from immigrant parents’ knowledge, they support more opportunities to enhance young children’s linguistic, cultural and social experiences both at school and elsewhere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165989/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Chen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When schools honour and learn from immigrant parents’ knowledge, they support more opportunities to enhance young children’s linguistic, cultural and social experiences.Emma Chen, Doctoral Student, Curriculum Studies, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1448072020-09-01T13:02:48Z2020-09-01T13:02:48ZWhy grandparents should talk to children about the natural world of their youth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355808/original/file-20200901-16-5bo96f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C108%2C4454%2C3259&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/NEIZtZsMCx4">Elisabeth Wales/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How often do you strike up a conversation with an older relative about the past? You might switch off when someone begins a sentence with “back in my day…”, but that story could provide some very valuable information – particularly if you’re interested in ecology.</p>
<p>It’s hard to fathom how much the natural world has changed within just a few generations. My grandma was born in Lancashire in 1924. In the 70 years separating our birthdays, she saw ecological conditions that I will never experience first-hand. Even my parents, when prompted, recall clouds of insects while they learned to drive, regular snowfall each winter and now rare bird species filling their back gardens. </p>
<p>News about growing environmental issues are often hard to conceptualise, but anecdotes about your <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2019/11/14/citizens-become-agents-environmental-change/">local area</a> can mean a lot more. Older people hold a rich library of knowledge about the past, and how their corner of the world has changed over the course of their lives. This could be critical for putting ongoing wildlife declines in context, and it’s especially useful for younger people. Our relative lack of experience of environmental change leaves us vulnerable to something called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2009.00049.x">shifting baseline syndrome</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A line of Victorian women stand on a frozen lake." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355814/original/file-20200901-24-omg2iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355814/original/file-20200901-24-omg2iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355814/original/file-20200901-24-omg2iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355814/original/file-20200901-24-omg2iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355814/original/file-20200901-24-omg2iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355814/original/file-20200901-24-omg2iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355814/original/file-20200901-24-omg2iu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exceptionally cold winters are rare in Britain today, but they were once routine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-ice-skaters-lined-photo-191214">Victorian Traditions/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Shifting baseline syndrome describes a collective or personal inability to perceive change over time. What we consider to be normal environmental conditions are consistently downgraded with each new generation, leading us to underestimate how much the environment has changed. Whatever you or your generation grew up with is considered normal, but as species continue to go extinct and wild habitats are erased, your children will inherit a degraded environment and accept that as normal, and their children will normalise an even more impoverished natural world. </p>
<p>If we consistently accept now as normal, do we ever hit a crisis point? As journalist J.B. MacKinnon <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/12/09/249728994/what-happened-on-easter-island-a-new-even-scarier-scenario?t=1598953023298">wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you’re waiting for an ecological crisis to persuade human beings to change their troubled relationship with nature – you could be waiting a long, long time.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Resetting the baseline</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/15/its-our-time-to-rise-up-youth-climate-strikes-held-in-100-countries">climate strikes</a> have shown that many young people care a great deal about the state of nature. But youth may prevent us from recognising the signs of ecological decline through our own experience.</p>
<p>Being able to track shifting baseline syndrome requires a long-term dataset against which to compare perceptions of change. In my <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10140">own research</a>, my colleagues and I compared the perceptions of people in the UK with data from a bird survey provided by the British Trust for Ornithology which spans more than 50 years. </p>
<p>We asked people about the past and present abundance of 10 garden bird species in their local area and how they think they’ve changed over time. We found that younger and less experienced people were less aware of their declines than older people, and were less likely to see the need for interventions to help species such as the house sparrow and tree pipit. </p>
<p>The results are worrying, but <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.1794">previous studies</a> suggest that there are many ways to combat shifting baseline syndrome around the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A father house sparrow sits with three offspring on his right." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355811/original/file-20200901-16-13vadg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355811/original/file-20200901-16-13vadg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355811/original/file-20200901-16-13vadg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355811/original/file-20200901-16-13vadg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355811/original/file-20200901-16-13vadg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355811/original/file-20200901-16-13vadg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355811/original/file-20200901-16-13vadg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">House sparrows – more common in British gardens 50 years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/house-sparrow-male-his-children-family-416523508">Nick Vorobey/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Offering young volunteers the chance to gather data about wildlife and work in conservation projects could help foster meaningful experiences with nature, while providing valuable data and restoring habitats. </p>
<p>Perhaps even simpler, we could try to start more conversations between older and younger people to help break the cycle of normalisation. In the age of social media, not only is it easier to contact family and friends, but we can create online platforms to share photographs and stories about our ecological past.</p>
<p>As a teenager, I probably rolled my eyes too whenever I heard “back in my day…”. But the climate and ecological crisis has left an entire generation of people asking how we got here. Knowledge of how the natural world used to look may be buried in the memories and mementos of older people, but sharing it with entire communities could make young people more ambitious about the world they leave their children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144807/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lizzie Jones receives PhD funding from the Royal Holloway Reid Scholarship. </span></em></p>Shifting baseline syndrome affects everyone. It’s blinding us to the long-term deterioration of wildlife and ecosystems.Lizzie Jones, PhD Candidate in Zoology, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1415342020-07-17T01:13:21Z2020-07-17T01:13:21ZGrandparent-grandchildren video calls are vital during COVID-19. Here are simple ways to improve them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347249/original/file-20200714-140154-stonzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=72%2C0%2C4772%2C2961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>COVID-19 has seen a huge increase in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-03/coronavirus-tips-for-video-conferencing-work-social-distancing/12113224">video calling</a> as we try to socially distance but still stay in touch.</p>
<p>This is particularly the case for grandparents and their grandchildren, who have either chosen to stay away, given the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-older-people-more-at-risk-of-coronavirus-133770">vulnerability of older people</a> to coronavirus, or been forced apart due to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-07/victoria-reimposes-lockdown-as-coronavirus-cases-rise/12429990">lockdowns</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-the-victoria-nsw-border-closure-will-work-and-how-residents-might-be-affected-142045">border closures</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-chats-can-ease-social-isolation-for-older-adults-during-coronavirus-pandemic-135890">Video chats can ease social isolation for older adults during coronavirus pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As researchers in early childhood, psychology and linguistics, we are studying how video calls fit into the lives of grandparents and their grandchildren and how we can enhance this interaction.</p>
<h2>Our research</h2>
<p>In a project with <a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/babylab/research/research_projects/digital_infant_directed_speech_ids">Western Sydney University’s BabyLab</a>, we are surveying grandparents and parents about their experience of using video chat with children under the age of five, to capture the changes brought by COVID-19.</p>
<p>So far, 130 grandparents and parents from around Australia have responded.</p>
<p>Of those surveyed, on average, grandparents video call two to three times a week with their grandchildren, for about five to ten minutes. They mostly used FaceTime and Facebook Messenger, as apps that are already available on their phones. </p>
<h2>‘Being part of their lives’</h2>
<p>About 40% of grandparents surveyed began using video calls with their grandchildren for the first time during COVID-19. For all those surveyed, it was a mostly positive experience. </p>
<p>Grandparents say the calls allow them to stay connected with their grandchildren - with respondents talking about “being a part of their lives” and “not missing seeing them grow”.</p>
<p>One grandmother, who started using video chat with her granddaughter during COVID-19, said</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I can see her and see her react to our voices and smile, which makes me feel good.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another experienced user, with grandchildren overseas, also said</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Because it’s so frequent - almost daily - I know their environment, it feels‚ normal. There’s no shyness, we can start a book one day and continue each day. We walk around theirs and my apartment and garden and I just feel part of their lives.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But there are challenges. Not surprisingly, the greatest challenge was maintaining children’s attention during the calls.</p>
<p>For some, the interaction was “artificial and detached”. As one parent said</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was more of a novelty than a way to have a genuine connection with people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other parents described the experience as stressful, noting the call had to be at “right time”. As one parent noted of her one-year-old daughter, “she gets overstimulated and then will not go to bed”.</p>
<p>Some grandparents also expressed concern that it was an additional burden for parents and efforts were abandoned</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I only did it once because it was too hard to fit into their already busy day.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What does this mean for ‘screen time’?</h2>
<p>Many parents and grandparents we surveyed have questions about what increased video-calling means for “<a href="https://raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers/play-learning/screen-time-media/screen-time">screen time</a>”. </p>
<p>Is it harmful in any way for children? And for babies under 12 months - is there any benefit? Can it genuinely help such little ones remember their grandparents?</p>
<p>But video calls are not simply “screen time”. Rather, they offer an important opportunity for socialisation, as young children can still mimic the information typically available in face-to-face interactions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-worrying-about-screen-time-its-your-childs-screen-experience-that-matters-118610">Stop worrying about screen 'time'. It's your child’s screen experience that matters</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The key appears to be the instant feedback that video offers. As <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/desc.12430">recent research shows</a>, one and two year-old children can develop a social connection and learn the names of objects from someone they see and talk with via a video call.</p>
<p>Babies as young as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022096513001367?via%3Dihub">four and five months</a> prefer looking at images of faces over other toys and objects. This continues into their <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/infa.12352">second year of life</a>.</p>
<p>So yes, you can engage a young child through FaceTime - and it can help their development. </p>
<p>But how can we optimise video calls with small children? </p>
<h2>Tips for preparing for a video call</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>Place your device on a firm surface, using your cover or something similar as a tripod to free your hands for gesturing and showing objects.</p></li>
<li><p>Try to keep the light source in front of you, excessive sun glare behind you leads to poor quality video.</p></li>
<li><p>Minimise background noise (such as the washing machine or radio).</p></li>
<li><p>Make the call part of your routine, so children come to expect and get used to calls.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347251/original/file-20200714-22-1nssx9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347251/original/file-20200714-22-1nssx9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347251/original/file-20200714-22-1nssx9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347251/original/file-20200714-22-1nssx9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347251/original/file-20200714-22-1nssx9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347251/original/file-20200714-22-1nssx9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347251/original/file-20200714-22-1nssx9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Turn off the radio and minimise other background noises when making video calls.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<ul>
<li><p>Make calls at a time of day when you can all relax - when babies are fed, changed and alert and older children are fed and not too tired.</p></li>
<li><p>Before making the call, parents can share images, videos and messages describing new skills or activities since you last spoke, so grandparents have something to ask questions about and engage with.</p></li>
<li><p>Prepare the child before the call to help manage their expectations. For example, ask them to pick out their favourite toy or drawing so they can show and talk about it.</p></li>
<li><p>Start with shorter calls (around five minutes) and increase the length as you see fit.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Tips for keeping the call going</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>For parents, consider making the video call as you do routine activities, such as cooking, sharing meals or bath-time - this can bring grandparents into the day-to-day routine and reduce the stress of finding a time to call. </p></li>
<li><p>As a grandparent, try to maintain eye contact and talk about things that baby or child is paying attention to at that moment.</p></li>
<li><p>Use songs and games (“pat-a-cake” and “peekaboo” are good examples) to capture babies’ attention. Musical statues is a good game to play with older children.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347250/original/file-20200714-139820-1mpri1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347250/original/file-20200714-139820-1mpri1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347250/original/file-20200714-139820-1mpri1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347250/original/file-20200714-139820-1mpri1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347250/original/file-20200714-139820-1mpri1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347250/original/file-20200714-139820-1mpri1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347250/original/file-20200714-139820-1mpri1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Video calls are an important opportunity to learn social skills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<ul>
<li><p>Make funny faces and hand gestures, blow kisses.</p></li>
<li><p>Dance, take each other on a tour of your home or garden, or try exercise moves together.</p></li>
<li><p>Set aside some books to use for video calls. You can carry on reading longer books with older children each time you call.</p></li>
<li><p>Try out various filters or virtual backgrounds built into your apps to make it more interesting for kids and give you something else to talk about.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.savethechildren.org/us/what-we-do/emergency-response/coronavirus-outbreak/resources/social-distancing-tips-grandparents-grandchildren">Save the Children</a> has some further information about staying in touch with grandparents.</p>
<p>If you are a grandparent, you can register to participate in the BabyLab survey <a href="https://surveyswesternsydney.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9Red5uu7iBOOyCV">here</a>. Parents can register <a href="https://surveyswesternsydney.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d4H29Bd2cgolEXz">here</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pregnant-in-a-pandemic-if-youre-stressed-theres-help-138825">Pregnant in a pandemic? If you're stressed, there's help</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141534/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christa Lam-Cassettari receives funding from the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation, South West Sydney Research and ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paola Escudero receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) via the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language and an ARC Future Fellowship.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Virginia Schmied receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
She is a member of the Australian College of Midwives.</span></em></p>Video calls are not simply “screen time” for little kids. They offer an important opportunity for socialisation.Christa Lam-Cassettari, Research Fellow, MARCS Institute BabyLab, Western Sydney UniversityPaola Escudero, Professor in Linguistics, MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney UniversityVirginia Schmied, Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1317432020-02-13T22:42:13Z2020-02-13T22:42:13ZExpanding the definition of family to reflect our realities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316238/original/file-20200219-11017-e3nic0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=240%2C444%2C2785%2C1551&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A narrow definition of family can neglect the experiences of single-parent families.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The second Monday in February is Family Day in parts of Canada. <a href="https://open.alberta.ca/publications/f04">Started in Alberta in 1990</a>, four additional provinces celebrate Family Day: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick. (Other provinces have holidays reflecting their heritage.) </p>
<p>Québec is one of few jurisdictions that does not have a civic holiday in February, though <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-one-province-got-80-per-cent-of-fathers-to-take-paternity-leave-118737">the province has generous family leave policies</a>. </p>
<p>This year, to coincide with the emphasis on family, <a href="http://www.concordia.ca">Concordia University</a> and the <a href="https://vanierinstitute.ca">Vanier Institute of the Family</a> are hosting a <a href="https://vanierinstitute.ca/concordia-university-to-host-families-in-canada-satellite-event-february-20-2020/">conference</a> on families and family life on Feb. 20. The conference will explore some of the tensions and dichotomies embedded in families. For one, how do we define what family means? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315121/original/file-20200212-61947-1you67c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=81%2C191%2C4714%2C3061&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315121/original/file-20200212-61947-1you67c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315121/original/file-20200212-61947-1you67c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315121/original/file-20200212-61947-1you67c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315121/original/file-20200212-61947-1you67c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315121/original/file-20200212-61947-1you67c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315121/original/file-20200212-61947-1you67c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People take to the Rideau Canal on Family Day in Ottawa on Feb. 18, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Expanding the definition of family</h2>
<p>How we define family (and who gets to do that defining) is an important starting point for conversations on family life. Who’s in? Who’s out? Who actually counts as family? For some, family means married parents with children, or married heterosexual parents with children. For others, it may mean a chosen family, or a cohabiting couple with no children.</p>
<p>For our conference, we are using an adaptation of the <a href="https://vanierinstitute.ca/family-definition-diversity/">Vanier Institute’s definition</a>: a family consists of any combination of two or more people, bound together over time, by ties of mutual consent and/or birth, adoption or placement, and who take responsibility for various activities of daily living, including love.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2017.1333055">research has identified the need to attend to extended families</a>, including grandparents, aunts and uncles. It also includes the need to extend the definition of family to non-traditional family forms including LGBTQ2S+ families, chosen families, multi-generation families that include grandparents, single parents and people living alone. </p>
<p>It wasn’t until 2001 that Statistics Canada gathered information on multi-generational households, and in 2011 the census first counted stepfamilies and foster children. Families in Canada <a href="https://vanierinstitute.ca/resources/statistical-snapshots/">are diverse</a> and our programs and policies should be responsive to this diversity.</p>
<p>We find that a narrow definition of family can neglect the experiences of <a href="http://demeterpress.org/books/intensive-mothering-the-cultural-contradictions-of-modern-motherhood/">single-parent, poor and minority families</a>. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243211427700">research shows</a> that women of colour and low-income women often experience and interpret motherhood differently than white, class-privileged mothers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316242/original/file-20200219-11005-x0029j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316242/original/file-20200219-11005-x0029j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316242/original/file-20200219-11005-x0029j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316242/original/file-20200219-11005-x0029j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316242/original/file-20200219-11005-x0029j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316242/original/file-20200219-11005-x0029j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316242/original/file-20200219-11005-x0029j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This image includes four adults and three children: many factors, including race and class impact family relationships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gift Habeshaw /Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Recently, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01634372.2010.516804">researchers</a> began to examine how diversity related to race, class and sexual orientation affects grandparent-grandchild relationships. To continue to expand our understanding of families’ experiences, we need to think more broadly about what factors matter in families. </p>
<h2>Family realities should be reflected in policy</h2>
<p>How we define family impacts social policy like <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-maternity-parental.html">parental, maternity and paternity leave entitlements</a> and <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-child-benefit-overview.html">child-care tax credits</a>. <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/caregiving.html">Caregiver benefits and compassionate leave policies are also tied to family status</a>. Eligibility depends on whether you are a family member. </p>
<p>In health-care contexts, visitors in intensive care units and emergency departments are often restricted to immediate family and grandparents often don’t have rights when it comes to child custody cases. So a comprehensive definition of family influences how we develop programs for families and who is eligible. </p>
<p>Besides needing to expand the definition of family, we also need to look at the messy realities of family and family life. The irony of organizing a public family conference while attending to the realities of our private family lives was not lost on us. As we scheduled meetings and conference calls, we were also planning Skype dates, making school lunches and caring for parents across the country.</p>
<p>We believe that practitioners, service providers and policy-makers need to take into account the complexity of family lives when thinking about family practice, programs and policies. Family scholars and the Vanier Institute of the Family refer to using a family lens: needing to look at the complexity of family and family relations beyond individual family members.</p>
<p>Thinking about families in a broad sense when we develop programs and policies can be challenging. It is much easier to use an individual lens to think about developing children, or aging seniors. But these individual family members, even those who live on their own, live out their lives in the context of families —whether biological or social. </p>
<h2>The future of families</h2>
<p>When using a family lens, it can be easy to slip into a glass-half-empty approach. Family life educators and social workers struggle with the tension between deficit models of family, and asset or strength-based models of family. Instead of only focusing on what problems families experience, we can benefit from understanding what strengths they have and what makes them resilient in the face of life’s challenges. </p>
<p>Some family practitioners and family scholars would say that in the best of all possible worlds, it would be preferable to remain apolitical as we think about family and as we provide information and assistance to families. </p>
<p>And yet, some of us feel strongly that it is important to look beyond families to society to advocate on behalf of families, or family members, who are at risk. </p>
<p>At our families conference we will be exploring the tension between present and future. Based on our understanding of systems and systemic change, we will emphasize envisioning a different future by including all families — in the broadest sense. </p>
<p>Rather than staying focused on the present, we look towards a future of change by asking the question: “Wouldn’t it be great if …?”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannon Hebblethwaite receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et Culture (FRQSC), the Fondation Luc Maurice, and TELUS Health.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hilary Rose does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A narrow definition of family can neglect the experiences of many people and can impact policy and programs. It’s time to expand our ideas of what family means.Hilary Rose, Associate Professor of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia UniversityShannon Hebblethwaite, Associate Professor of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1223132019-08-28T05:00:52Z2019-08-28T05:00:52ZWhen a baby is stillborn, grandparents are hit with ‘two lots of grief’. Here’s how we can help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289739/original/file-20190828-184217-bj1mt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C994%2C580&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Grandparents grieve for their child and their stillborn grandchild, a grief we need to acknowledge.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/1401929171?src=-1-0&size=medium_jpg">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.stillbirthcre.org.au/resources/stillbirth-facts/">Six babies</a> are stillborn every day in Australia. This significant loss <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1744165X12001023">affects parents</a> for years to come, often the rest of their lives. However, stillbirth also affects many others, including grandparents.</p>
<p>But until now, we have not heard the experiences of grandparents whose grandchildren are stillborn. Their grief was rarely acknowledged and there are few supports tailored to them.</p>
<p>Our recently published <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31387781">research</a> is the first in the world to specifically look at grandmothers’ experience of stillbirth and the support they need.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/death-and-families-when-normal-grief-can-last-a-lifetime-32959">Death and families – when 'normal' grief can last a lifetime</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>In Australia, a baby <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0037109">is defined as</a> stillborn when it dies in the womb from 20 weeks’ gestation, or weighs more than 400 grams. Other countries have slightly different definitions.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.stillbirthcre.org.au/resources/stillbirth-facts/">About 2,200</a> babies are stillborn each year here meaning stillbirth may be more common than many people think. And people <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)60107-4/fulltext">don’t tend to talk</a> about this openly despite it leading to significant grief.</p>
<p>To explore grandparents’ experience of stillbirth, we interviewed 14 grandmothers for our initial study, and a further 23 grandmothers and grandfathers since then. </p>
<p>Many grandparents were not aware stillbirth was a risk today. Most felt unprepared. Like parents, grandparents experienced grief like no other after their grandchild was stillborn.</p>
<p>Rose said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The grief is always there, it never leaves you […] I don’t know why but sometimes it is still very raw. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sally said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I [would do] anything in my power to take it away, even if it meant, you know, something dreadful happening to me, I would have done it. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Grandparents also spoke of anticipating the arrival of their grandchild, and disbelief at their loss. </p>
<p>Donna said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was as bad as it could be and […] I thought it just couldn’t be real, it couldn’t be real.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Where grandparents lived a long way from their child, the loss was even more profound. Distance prevented them from holding their grandchild after birth, attending memorials, or helping their own children. </p>
<p>Iris said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I still miss her now […] When she was born and they had her in the hospital they would text me and say you know she’s got hair like her daddy […] and they would describe her and how beautiful she was, and that’s all they have, you know […] that’s all I have really. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Grandparents said they wanted to hide their grief to protect their child from pain. This often made them isolated. Their relationships with family members often changed. </p>
<p>Mary said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s like two lots of grief […] but I don’t want it to sound like it’s as bad as my daughter’s loss. It’s different, it’s a different grief, because you’re grieving the loss of a grandchild, and you’re also grieving for your daughter and her loss and it’s like yeah you’ve been kicked in the guts twice instead of once.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What grandparents wanted</h2>
<p>Grandparents stressed the importance and ongoing value of being involved in “memory making” and spending time with their stillborn grandchild where possible. </p>
<p>Creating mementos, such as taking photos and making footprints and hand prints, were all important ways of expressing their grief. These mementos kept the baby “alive” in the family. They were also a way to ensure their own child knew the baby was loved and remembered.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-to-help-parents-cope-with-the-trauma-of-stillbirth-69622">Five ways to help parents cope with the trauma of stillbirth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our research also identified better ways to support grandparents. Grandparents said that if they knew more about stillbirth, they would be more confident in knowing how to help support their children. And if people were more aware of grandparents’ grief, and acknowledged their loss, this would make it easier for them to get support themselves, and reduce feelings of isolation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289743/original/file-20190828-184229-a1zksu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289743/original/file-20190828-184229-a1zksu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289743/original/file-20190828-184229-a1zksu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289743/original/file-20190828-184229-a1zksu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289743/original/file-20190828-184229-a1zksu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289743/original/file-20190828-184229-a1zksu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289743/original/file-20190828-184229-a1zksu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289743/original/file-20190828-184229-a1zksu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Families can encourage grandparents to seek professional support if needed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-family-beach-72116008?src=-1-6">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our research also found families can recognise that grandparents grieve too, for both their child and grandchild. Grandparents can be encouraged to seek support from other family and friends. Families could also encourage grandparents to seek support from professionals if needed. </p>
<p>In hospitals, midwives can adopt some simple, time efficient strategies, with a big impact on grandparents. With parent consent, midwives could include grandparents in memory making activities. </p>
<p>By acknowledging the connection grandparents have to the baby, midwives can validate the grief that they experience. In recognising the supportive role of grandparents, midwives can also provide early guidance about how best to support their child.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-five-stages-of-grief-dont-come-in-fixed-steps-everyone-feels-differently-96111">The five stages of grief don't come in fixed steps – everyone feels differently</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Hospitals can help by including grandparents in the education provided after stillbirth. This might include guidance about support for their child, or simply providing grandparents with written resources and guiding them to appropriate supports. </p>
<p>In time, development of peer support programs, where grandparents support others in similar situations, could help. </p>
<p>And, as a community, we can support grandparents the same way they support their own children. We can be there, listen and learn.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>All grandparents’ names in this article are pseudonyms.</em></p>
<p><em>If this article raises issues for you or someone you know, contact <a href="http://www.sands.org.au">Sands</a> (stillbirth and newborn death support) on 1300 072 637. Sands also has <a href="https://www.sands.org.au/images/sands-creative/brochures/127517-For-Grandparents-Brochure.pdf">written information specifically for grandparents</a> of stillborn babies.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Lockton receives an Australian Government Research Training Scholarship</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clemence Due receives funding from the ARC and the Stillbirth Foundation Australia</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Oxlad does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The world’s first study of how grandmothers experience the death of their stillborn grandchild exposes a unique kind of grief. But there are many ways we can support them.Jane Lockton, PhD Candidate (Psychology, Health), University of AdelaideClemence Due, Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, University of AdelaideMelissa Oxlad, Lecturer in the School of Psychology, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1143472019-07-15T12:03:44Z2019-07-15T12:03:44ZThe real midlife crisis confronting many Americans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282540/original/file-20190703-126400-mtn2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Midlife is one of the least understood, appreciated and studied life stages.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/monochrome-portrait-face-middle-aged-woman-196185824?src=DUJmmi71INS753UJ6Kn6PA-1-60&studio=1">Sarah2/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The way my mom imagined it, midlife was going to be great: counting down days until retirement, spending winters in Florida and checking off destinations on her bucket list. But it hasn’t turned out that way. </p>
<p>Instead of more time spent in Florida, she’s still stuck in snowy upstate New York. She traded romps in the sea and traveling the world for her daily visits to her mom, who’s in a nursing home. Instead of the joys of living the snowbird life, she’s saddled with stress, guilt and the challenges of caring for my grandmother, who is 89 and dealing with dementia.</p>
<p>“This is not how I imagined my life at midlife,” my mom, who is 61, tells me. </p>
<p>She isn’t alone. </p>
<p><a href="http://pathwaystocharacter.org/research-project/does-adversity-lead-to-character-growth-if-so-how-and-for-whom/">In a study my colleagues and I conducted on middle-aged adults</a>, we followed 360 people on a monthly basis for two years, tracking their life events, health, well-being and character.</p>
<p>We found that midlife, <a href="http://aging.wisc.edu/midus/findings/pdfs/367.pdf">generally considered to encompass the ages of 40 to 65</a>, has become a time of crisis. But it’s not the kind of crisis that exists in popular imagination – when parents, with their kids out of the house, feel compelled to make up for lost time and relive their glory days.</p>
<p>There’s little time for jetting around the world. And splurging on a red sports car? Forget that. </p>
<p>Instead, the midlife crisis experienced by most people is subtler, more nuanced and rarely discussed among family and friends. It can be best described as the “big squeeze” – a period during which middle-aged adults are increasingly confronted with the impossible choice of deciding how to split their time and money between themselves, their parents and their kids.</p>
<h2>Parenting your parents and your adult kids</h2>
<p>Many middle-aged adults increasingly <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/05/21/5-helping-adult-children/">feel obligated</a> to take care of both their aging parents and their kids.</p>
<p>Insufficient family leave policies force middle-aged adults to decide between maximizing their earning potential or caring for an aging parent. Of those who were working full-time while caregiving more than 21 hours a week for an aging parent, <a href="https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2018/08/breaking-new-ground-supporting-employed-family-caregivers-with-workplace-leave-policies.pdf">25% took reduced work hours or accepted a less demanding position</a>. Studies have shown that juggling a job while caring for a parents <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-97051-000">strains relationships and takes a toll on mental and physical health</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282546/original/file-20190703-126382-1cxm2s0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282546/original/file-20190703-126382-1cxm2s0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282546/original/file-20190703-126382-1cxm2s0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282546/original/file-20190703-126382-1cxm2s0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282546/original/file-20190703-126382-1cxm2s0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282546/original/file-20190703-126382-1cxm2s0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282546/original/file-20190703-126382-1cxm2s0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People are living longer – and someone has to take care of them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/profile-portrait-elderly-old-women-grandmother-550027804?src=nJq_xYww5MtJgzP6O67rhg-1-30&studio=1">Sjstudio6/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Middle-aged adults also find themselves contending with continued or renewed dependency of their adult children. <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/07/29/more-millennials-living-with-family-despiteimproved-">Compared with 10 years ago</a>, more adult children nowadays are living with their parents. One reason is that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igx026">their kids are spending more time in school</a>. </p>
<p>But there are also fewer employment opportunities, and young adults are having a tougher time securing basic needs, like health insurance. Together, these trends have led to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023697">more anxiety and depression among middle-aged parents</a>, who fear their kids might never have the same opportunities they did.</p>
<h2>Longer lives, fewer opportunities</h2>
<p>Why is this squeeze happening now?</p>
<p>For one thing, the parents of middle-aged adults are living longer than ever before. The past century has seen remarkable gains in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08984">life expectancy</a>. Options to care for aging parents in need range from in-home by oneself or with the help of home health aides to assisted living and nursing home facilities. Costs vary across the type of care, <a href="https://www.genworth.com/aging-and-you/finances/cost-of-care/cost-of-care-trends-and-insights.html">but overall costs are continually on the rise</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the adult children of middle-aged Americans are still reeling from the Great Recession of 2008. A tepid labor market combined with student loan debt <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.05.008">has left grown adult children struggling</a> to find stable, long-term employment, and they’ve delayed buying a house and starting a family.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282545/original/file-20190703-126376-woa87n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282545/original/file-20190703-126376-woa87n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282545/original/file-20190703-126376-woa87n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282545/original/file-20190703-126376-woa87n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282545/original/file-20190703-126376-woa87n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282545/original/file-20190703-126376-woa87n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282545/original/file-20190703-126376-woa87n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unable to secure stable employment, many young adults find themselves relying on their parents well into their 20s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sad-girl-bared-shoulders-looks-camera-493620970?studio=1">tugol/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, few policies are in place for those who try to balance work while caring for an aging parent. The U.S. doesn’t have a federal policy for paid family leave, only unpaid. </p>
<p>Six states and the District of Columbia <a href="https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2018/08/breaking-new-ground-supporting-employed-family-caregivers-with-workplace-leave-policies.pdf">have paid family leave policies</a>, which include up to 12 weeks of paid time off and wage replacement at 50% to 80% of one’s salary. But it’s often those who cannot afford to take time off or accept a pay decrease <a href="http://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/research/public_policy_institute/security/2013/impact-of-rising-healthcare-costs-AARP-ppi-sec.pdf">who end up as caregivers</a>. </p>
<h2>More financial risk</h2>
<p>Although midlife often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025414533223">marks a high point</a> for earnings and represents the peak of decision-making abilities, middle-aged adults are less equipped than you might think to assume midlife’s new challenges and burdens. </p>
<p>Living wages are stagnant and labor market volatility has fueled job insecurity, with <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/encore-adulthood-9780199357277?cc=us&lang=en&">24% of people aged 45 to 74 worried that they could lose their job in the next year</a>. </p>
<p>Plus, middle-aged adults have their own health to worry about. As people get older, their health costs rise, which eat away at bank accounts, making it harder to make ends meet. While wider access to health insurance <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.9797">has made a difference</a> due to the Affordable Care Act, rapid increases in costs for coverage and medications can severely strain household budgets.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3226574">A recent report</a> found that middle-aged adults have the fastest-growing rate of bankruptcy – and one of the leading reasons is rising costs of health insurance coverage and medications. But parents who <a href="https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology/article/72/6/1084/2645641">co-sign the student loans</a> of their children have also created another bankruptcy risk factor. </p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>Although it may seem like doom and gloom for middle-aged adults, there is hope. Workplace and policy changes can alleviate their struggles. </p>
<p>Extensive research has documented <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1064748112617746">the effectiveness of training programs to help adults who are caring for their parents</a>. These programs – which range from workshops on understanding dementia to tutorials on self-care – don’t help with costs, but they can ease the emotional burden.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, studies have found that <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/0003122414531435">workplaces that give employees</a> more control over their schedules can lead to better health, workplace performance and retention. </p>
<p>As for broader policy, the U.S. can look to Europe for ideas on how to address paid family leave. European nations have <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/02/the-u-s-is-decades-behind-the-world-on-paid-leave-this-gives-us-an-advantage.html">generous family leave policies</a> that include long periods of paid time off following childbirth or for caregiving. Recently, <a href="https://time.com/5590167/paid-family-leave-united-states/">several bills</a> about family leave have been introduced in the U.S. Congress.</p>
<p>Midlife is arguably one of the least understood, appreciated and studied life stages. But it’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025414533223">a pivotal one</a>, with middle-aged Americans playing outsized roles in their workplaces, families and communities.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, without changes to social support or public policy, the problems facing middle-aged Americans will only exacerbate due to the sheer number of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2010/12/29/baby-boomers-retire/">baby boomers entering old age</a>.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank J. Infurna currently receives research funding from the John Templeton Foundation and National Institute on Aging. The content is solely his responsibility and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies. </span></em></p>What was once imagined as a time of exploration and reinvention has become marked by financial and emotional strain.Frank J. Infurna, Associate Professor of Psychology, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1131532019-05-07T23:21:41Z2019-05-07T23:21:41ZBaby talk is similar all over the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271548/original/file-20190429-194600-sqrj40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C61%2C5071%2C3339&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite our differences, when it comes to babies, we communicate the same way all over the world. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chiến Phạm/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674593770">vast differences in early child-rearing environments across cultures</a>. For example, the popular French documentary <a href="https://theindependentcritic.com/babies"><em>Babies</em></a>, which documents the life of infants in five different cultures, depicts the multitude of ways infants can be raised across different ecological and cultural contexts. </p>
<p>These differences illustrate the reality of infants growing up in distinct contexts. Anthropologists have been documenting such variability for decades producing detailed ethnographies of parenting, family life and socialization practices across different cultural settings. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022117731093">Developmental psychologists have found that these early experiences shape human development</a>.</p>
<p>Yet despite these fascinating differences, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.04.017">a whopping 95 per cent of developmental science is based on only five per cent of the world’s population</a>. </p>
<p>The majority of developmental psychology studies are based on WEIRD societies: western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic populations. Given this imbalance, one might wonder whether our knowledge of child development extends beyond urban, North American societies. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0999152X">The answer is, it depends</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271584/original/file-20190429-194600-lwkffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271584/original/file-20190429-194600-lwkffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271584/original/file-20190429-194600-lwkffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271584/original/file-20190429-194600-lwkffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271584/original/file-20190429-194600-lwkffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271584/original/file-20190429-194600-lwkffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271584/original/file-20190429-194600-lwkffu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ninety-five per cent of developmental science is based on only five per cent of the world’s population.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Unsplash</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In my research, I spend time with mothers, fathers, grandparents and babies to look at the ways in which they communicate, interact, teach and learn from one another. I am an associate professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. I was trained by both a developmental scientist (<a href="http://psychology.emory.edu/home/people/faculty/rochat-philippe.html">Philippe Rochat at Emory University</a>) and a bio-cultural anthropologist (<a href="https://henrich.fas.harvard.edu/">Joseph Henrich at Harvard University</a>). </p>
<p>I use my training in developmental methods to explore questions surrounding early experience and development across cultures. I have been fortunate to be welcomed into the homes of families in different corners of the globe. </p>
<h2>Attachment parenting</h2>
<p>For the past six years, I have been working primarily in one community in Vanuatu. Vanuatu is a group of islands, a three-hour flight from Brisbane, Australia. </p>
<p>Vanuatu was colonized by both the French and English. I have been working in a community on Tanna, Vanuatu. Historically, nearly half of the population on Tanna island has rejected colonization and all that it imposed: western education, languages and forms of religion. Therefore, Tanna has provided an interesting and remarkable forum for looking at socialization goals and developmental outcomes. Tanna is considered somewhat of a natural experiment for examining the impact of variation in socialization on development. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vB36k0hGxDM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The official trailer of the French documentary, ‘Babies’ directed by Thomas Balmes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/different-faces-of-attachment/9EC4FAF0F2CF7D8E7DBE7F15483D4B15">Heidi Keller, professor of psychology at Universität Osnabrück in Germany has recently suggested that one of the foundational human development theories, attachment theory</a>, is western-biased and in need of revision. Attachment theory suggests that the bond (the first relationship) between a child and her caregiver is the foundational human relationship upon which all other relationships are built. Keller suggests, however, that our understanding of human development is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022112472253">based on child development as it occurs within the western context</a>. </p>
<p>In our work, we examine caregivers and their infants in different societies, to determine the essential elements of child development. </p>
<p>What is common across cultures and what is different? Which theories need reformulation and which ones hold steady despite cultural differences?</p>
<h2>Eye-tracking technology</h2>
<p>In a recent study, my colleague Mikołaj Hernik and I used eye-tracking technology to compare the ways babies and caregivers communicate on Tanna. In this study, we showed babies short video clips with audio recordings of adults speaking in different ways: regular adult-directed speech and baby talk (or, infant-directed speech), and we observed and analyzed the way the babies responded. </p>
<p>We found that infants shifted their attention following the infant-directed speech, but <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30506550">not the adult-directed speech</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271588/original/file-20190429-194630-147g099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271588/original/file-20190429-194630-147g099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271588/original/file-20190429-194630-147g099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271588/original/file-20190429-194630-147g099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271588/original/file-20190429-194630-147g099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271588/original/file-20190429-194630-147g099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271588/original/file-20190429-194630-147g099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Research suggests that babies communicate in similar ways around the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Hockett/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This suggests that infants on Tanna are using communication cues in strikingly similar ways to infants in other regions of the world. </p>
<p>This research, alongside other work examining infant development, suggests that parents and babies communicate in remarkably similar ways despite striking variation in cultural practices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tanya Broesch receives funding from Social Science and Humanities Research Council and the Jacobs Foundation. She works for Simon Fraser University as an Associate Professor of Psychology.</span></em></p>Research suggests that parents and babies communicate in remarkably similar ways despite striking variation in cultural practices.Tanya Broesch, Associate Professor, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1080592018-12-20T01:06:35Z2018-12-20T01:06:35ZWhy you shouldn’t force the kids to hug Granny at Christmas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251265/original/file-20181218-27776-1hkkly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C9%2C3244%2C2433&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A high-five might be a less confronting option for a child.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Granny, who lives interstate and whom the kids haven’t seen since last year, is visiting for Christmas. She loves the kids and is eager to scoop them up and smother them with kisses. The young children, who only have a vague memory of who she is, are wary and would rather keep an eye on this strange woman for the next few hours before committing to any physical contact. </p>
<p>Faced with this situation, many parents would instinctively tell their kids to remember their manners and allow themselves to be smothered by Granny (or Grandad). It’s the polite thing to do, right? It is Christmas after all. </p>
<p>But in an era when we want children to be empowered, to be in charge of their bodies, and to be able to say no to unwanted attention, why do we allow our kids to be hugged and kissed against their will at family gatherings? Forced affection can undermine a child’s inherent sense of stranger danger and self-trust. </p>
<hr>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-tiger-to-free-range-parents-what-research-says-about-pros-and-cons-of-popular-parenting-styles-57986">From tiger to free-range parents – what research says about pros and cons of popular parenting styles</a>
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<p>Building and maintaining trust and respect are key to a successful relationship with children. The respectful approach to parenting (also known as “<a href="https://www.rie.org/educaring/ries-basic-principles">educaring</a>”) focuses on building cooperative relationships and treating each child as a unique human being. </p>
<p>Developed by Hungarian paediatrician <a href="https://pikler.org/?v=6cc98ba2045f">Emmi Pikler</a> and US parenting advocate <a href="https://www.magdagerber.org/">Magda Gerber</a>, the goal of this approach is to aid the development of an “authentic” child. Authentic in this sense means a child who feels secure, independent, competent in their abilities, and connected to the people and the environment around them. This approach has been shown to benefit children and to promote a healthy relationship between <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781317280392">a child and their caregiver</a>. </p>
<p>It is not an easy style of parenting. In many cases, it goes against how we ourselves were parented, and society’s conventional expectations of what parenting involves. An obedient child who never questioned authority was often viewed as a result of “good” parenting. In contrast, <a href="http://peacefulparentsconfidentkids.com/2016/02/how-to-help-a-defiant-child/">a child’s defiance</a> reflects their confidence to disagree, and is a normal and beneficial part of development. </p>
<h2>Christmas presence</h2>
<p>When it comes to Christmas family gatherings, the respectful approach can include giving children information in advance, so they have an idea of what to expect. </p>
<p>Sitting down with your child and having a chat about where they will be going and who they will be meeting can help mentally prepare them them for an upcoming event. Showing photos from previous years can also help them remember which relatives are which, thus helping them warm up for the impending meeting by putting a face to a name. </p>
<p>Likewise, letting relatives know in advance that your child will have a say in their greeting can help them prepare for the possibility of not getting the hug to which they might feel entitled. You can also suggest your relative give the child a choice of greeting (a hug, high-five, fist-bump, or wave). </p>
<p>The key to this process is to wait and hear the child’s response – and, importantly, to respect their decision. This can be very hard – often the adult will feel disappointed and upset to realise the child does not want to hug them.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/home-alone-how-to-keep-your-kids-safe-and-out-of-trouble-when-youre-at-work-these-holidays-105581">Home alone: how to keep your kids safe (and out of trouble) when you’re at work these holidays</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Letting children know that certain relatives may particularly like a hug can prepare them for that situation, while reassuring the child that they do have a say in the matter. You could try saying something like: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Grandpa is really looking forward to seeing you! He’ll ask you for a hug, but if you don’t feel like it you don’t have to. You might like to say hello in another way.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Children often relish the opportunity to exert some control. Autonomy is an important aspect of the respectful approach. For many children, it is their preference not to hug other people unless there is a close and connected relationship, and this should be fostered and supported. Occasionally, children may “test” the theory, by declining a hug and then waiting to see what happens. </p>
<p>As with adults, when their decision is respected, children feel more confident and valued. Over time, as a relationship becomes more familiar and connected, the child may feel more comfortable with closer contact. </p>
<p>For grandparents and other relatives, the good news is that this means when the child does agree to a hug (or even offers one of their own accord), it comes from a true desire to show affection, rather than from an adult imposing their wishes on them. </p>
<p>Incorporating aspects of the <a href="http://peacefulparentsconfidentkids.com/2014/12/respecting-children-at-christmas/">respectful approach into your Christmas</a> can help your children feel more settled and secure, at what is often a hectic time of the year.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108059/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Therese O'Sullivan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In many households, Christmas means visits from relatives eager to smother kids with kisses. But respectful parenting means giving the kids fair warning so they can decide whether that’s ok.Therese O'Sullivan, Associate Professor, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1081172018-12-10T10:39:06Z2018-12-10T10:39:06ZParent and grandparent relationships play an important role in encouraging altruistic acts – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249056/original/file-20181205-186079-1srl97m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Working together.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-volunteer-family-separating-donations-stuffs-257430472?src=MJbCae50tnEc9Ut6OiBz1A-1-0">ESB Professional/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are conflicting ideas about the role of the family in wider society. Some, particularly in the US, argue that family units are essential for a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?hl=en&publication_year=1999&author=S.+L.+Carter&title=Civility%3A+Manners%2C+morals%2C+and+the+etiquette+of+democracy">strong civil society</a>, and make a big contribution to public life. Others – mostly in Europe – <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/habermas/">say</a> that families act in self-interested ways.</p>
<p>We already know that families pass down certain traits and resources to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?hl=en&publication_year=2003&author=S.+J.+Ball&title=Class+strategies+and+the+education+market%3A+The+middle+classes+and+social+advantage">benefit younger generations</a>. They share skills and talents, or leave money to children and grandchildren in wills. However, our research team believes that young people’s relationships with their parents and grandparents can actually help explain their participation in activities that help other people and the environment. </p>
<p>For our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17448689.2018.1550903">newly published study</a>, we asked 976 teenagers aged 13-14 in Wales about their activities to help others, and their family relationships too. More than a quarter of teenagers in the study said that they did at least one activity to help other people or the environment often. While nearly two thirds said they did at least one activity either often or sometimes. Of these, the most popular activity was providing support for people who are not friends or relatives – for example helping out at a local foodbank – followed by giving time to a charity or cause. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249055/original/file-20181205-186079-2coyf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249055/original/file-20181205-186079-2coyf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249055/original/file-20181205-186079-2coyf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249055/original/file-20181205-186079-2coyf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249055/original/file-20181205-186079-2coyf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249055/original/file-20181205-186079-2coyf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249055/original/file-20181205-186079-2coyf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249055/original/file-20181205-186079-2coyf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Volunteering.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-smiling-teenage-volunteers-garbage-bags-141892744?src=f0rd_emSlkPwXe0FA9QJxw-1-22">michaeljung/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The teenagers also expressed a range of different motivations for their involvement. The most popular response was to improve things or help people (43%), followed by personal enjoyment (28%). This suggests that they were inspired by a mixture of self-oriented and selfless goals, which is also reflected in the fact that a third of them said their involvement had been personally beneficial and had benefited others and the environment too. </p>
<h2>Family influence</h2>
<p>The young people we spoke to identified family as the most important route into participation, and told us that their parents played a strong role in encouraging them to get involved in voluntary activities. Family was more important than both school and friends for these teens. Over half of them said that their parents encouraged their involvement – higher than all other options including friends (29%) and teachers (24%).</p>
<p>We also found that the better the relationship that teenagers felt they had with their mothers, the more likely they were to take part in activities to help other people and the environment. Having a good relationship with a close grandparent also seemed to be important. From what we found, the benefits of having a positive relationship with both of these family members doubled the likelihood that these young people would engage in activities to help others and gave a dual benefit (compared to if they only had a positive relationship with one family member). </p>
<p>When asked to focus on the grandparent they saw most often, four out of five of the teenage group said it was a female grandparent (mother’s mother or father’s father). This finding gives strong support to arguments made by <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?hl=en&publication_year=1989&author=N.+Fraser&title=Unruly+practices%3A+Power%2C+discourse+and+gender+in+contemporary+social+theory">feminist scholars</a> for better recognition of the role of women in civil society, and of the domestic or personal domain as a political space.</p>
<p>It is puzzling that the influence of fathers isn’t visible in our data, especially as our <a href="https://wiserd.ac.uk/research/research-projects/intergenerational-transmission-civic-virtues-role-family-civil-society">follow up interviews</a> with parents suggest that both mothers and fathers encourage their children to participate in activities to help others. This is something that we will need to investigate further. </p>
<p>Overall, our study reveals that parents seem to play a key role in providing a route into civic participation and encouraging young people to get involved. This link between family ties and civic participation suggests that some of the values that get passed between parents and their children might aid their participation in activities to help others and the environment. In this sense, it indicates that there could be an intergenerational transmission of civic participation.</p>
<p>Our research findings also undermine the idea that strong families do not contribute to civil society, and suggests instead that strong bonds forged within the family can lead to linkages outside it. This undermines the separation of “public” and “private” that runs through <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17448689.2018.1498170">European conceptualisations of civil society</a>.</p>
<p>Our data shows that family is far more important in developing a propensity for engagement in civil society than is commonly understood, even more important than school, perhaps. More research is needed but these results call for a re-evaluation of the family home as a potential site of civil society engagement, and a wider recognition of the role of women in civil society too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108117/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Esther Muddiman receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>Family is far more important for developing engagement of young people in civil society than previously thought.Esther Muddiman, Research Associate, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1045232018-11-07T11:36:16Z2018-11-07T11:36:16ZWhat’s behind the dramatic rise in 3-generation households?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244152/original/file-20181106-74751-1p78jr0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 2016, nearly 10 percent of American kids were living in three-generation households, like this one in Detroit, Michigan.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Michigan-United-/50aee7228de4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/174/0">AP Photo/Paul Sancya</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-018-0719-y">In a recent study</a>, I discovered that the number of kids living with their parents and grandparents – in what demographers call a three-generation household – has nearly doubled over the past two decades.</p>
<p>Why has this been happening? And is it a good thing or a bad thing?</p>
<p>The answers are complex. The reasons for the trend are as broad as social forces – like a decline in marriage rates – to unique family circumstances, like the loss of a parent’s job. </p>
<p>The trend is worth studying because by better understanding who children live with, we can design better policies aimed at helping kids. Programs targeting kids usually overlook these other people living under the same roof. But odds are that if grandma’s there, she matters, too. </p>
<h2>The flexible family unit</h2>
<p>A three-generation household is just one type of a living arrangement that falls under the umbrella of what demographers call a “shared household” or a “doubled-up household.”</p>
<p>In a shared household, a child lives with at least one adult who isn’t a sibling, parent or parent’s partner. It could include a cousin, aunt, uncle, grandparent or family friend.</p>
<p>In 2010, about <a href="https://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-242.pdf">1 in 5 children</a> were living in a shared household, a 3 percentage-point increase from 2007. In a 2014 study, I tracked the same kids over time and found that by age 10, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4870020/">nearly half</a> of children in large U.S. cities had lived in a shared household at some point in their lives.</p>
<p>Then, to probe further, <a href="http://fordschool.umich.edu/phd-students/christina-cross">my colleague</a> and I used two large census data sets to study trends by the type of shared living arrangements.</p>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-018-0719-y">We found</a> that, overall, the percentage of children in shared households had increased since 1996.</p>
<p>But the rise was nearly entirely driven by an increase in just one type of household: three-generation households – sometimes referred to as multigenerational households – in which children live with at least one grandparent and one or both parents.</p>
<p>We also found that the share of children living in three-generation households has risen from 5.7 percent in 1996 to 9.8 percent in 2016.</p>
<p>In other words, roughly <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XhNZoDC-rfYVtz-Ety4e88qp6DCH_IxG/view">1 in 10</a>, or 7.1 million, kids lives in a multigenerational household. At birth, about <a href="https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol30/60/30-60.pdf">15 percent</a> of U.S. kids now live with a parent and grandparent – a rate that’s double that of countries like the U.K. and Australia.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, there was no real change in the percent of children living with aunts and uncles, other relatives or non-relatives. <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XhNZoDC-rfYVtz-Ety4e88qp6DCH_IxG/view">Nor did we find</a> any evidence of an increase in “grandfamilies,” also known as “skipped-generation households.” These are homes in which a grandparent is raising a grandchild without the child’s parents living with them. Counter to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/more-grandparents-raising-their-grandchildren">some media reports</a>, the share of children living in grandfamilies has held steady at roughly two percent since 1996.</p>
<h2>A trend rooted in more than the recession</h2>
<p>What propelled the rise in multigenerational households? </p>
<p>We found that shared living arrangements did increase during the recession, but it wasn’t just because of the recession. Research on unemployment during the Great Recession has found that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4325982/">the economic downturn didn’t have much of an effect</a> on whether <a href="http://www.socsci.uci.edu/%7Embitler/papers/Bitler-Hoynes-GR-fin.pdf">parents expanded their household ranks</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, the share of multigenerational households was rising before the Great Recession – it actually <a href="https://paa.confex.com/paa/2018/mediafile/ExtendedAbstract/Paper19171/Pilkauskas_historical_trends_3G_Extended_Abstract.pdf">started in the 1980s</a>.</p>
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<p>Furthermore, these shared living arrangements continued to increase even as the economy recovered. </p>
<p>All of this suggests there other, more deeply rooted, reasons for the increase.</p>
<p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XhNZoDC-rfYVtz-Ety4e88qp6DCH_IxG/view">My study identified</a> three possible drivers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/23/144-years-of-marriage-and-divorce-in-the-united-states-in-one-chart/?utm_term=.6e471140c01b">Declines in marriage</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/18/the-unbelievable-rise-of-single-motherhood-in-america-over-the-last-50-years/?utm_term=.898bc40a265f">increases in single parenthood</a> mean more moms and dads are living with their parents, who can help with childcare and paying the bills.</p>
<p>Next, a growing share of U.S. children are non-white. Because minority families <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29770726">are much more likely to share households</a>, this population shift seems to explain some of the increase.</p>
<p>And finally, there’s the fact that more people are receiving Social Security. Because Social Security gives grandparents a steady source of income, it could be that these grandparents are stepping in to help their grandchildren if their own children’s incomes are too low.</p>
<p>But this only explains some of the increase. </p>
<p>There may well be a range of other factors at play: <a href="http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Harvard_JCHS_State_of_the_Nations_Housing_2018.pdf">rising housing costs</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/07/opinion/leonhardt-income-inequality.html?_r=0">growing inequality</a>, <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SPDYNLE00INUSA">increased longevity</a>, or even just an increase in the number of <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2017/demo/p70br-147.pdf">grandparents</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29361076">step-grandparents</a>.</p>
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<p>We also know that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3765068/">low-income</a> parents, younger parents and parents with less education are more likely to live in a three-generation household.</p>
<p>At the same time, some of the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XhNZoDC-rfYVtz-Ety4e88qp6DCH_IxG/view">fastest growth</a> in these households has been among more traditionally advantaged groups – children with married mothers, higher income mothers and older mothers. </p>
<p>More research is needed to really understand why these households have increased and the extent to which public policies, like <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w24594">reduced welfare availability</a> or <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/declining-federal-minimum-wage-inequality/">declines in the real minimum wage</a>, are driving this trend.</p>
<h2>Not an ideal arrangement</h2>
<p>While the exact reasons for the trend are still unclear, the fact remains that more kids are living in three-generation households. </p>
<p>What should we make of it? </p>
<p>Studies have found <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12048958">positive</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4963814/">negative</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3706187/">no effects</a> of three-generation households on children. </p>
<p>For example, sharing a household has <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4870020/">documented economic benefits</a>, like rental savings. But it can also make households crowded, which isn’t <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27103537">the best</a> environment for kids.</p>
<p>The findings are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cdep.12016">mixed</a> because living arrangements are a complex topic. Motivation is difficult to distill. Sometimes people live together by choice – say, to be closer to family. Other times it’s by necessity – prompted by a crisis like a divorce, health problem or job loss. </p>
<p>From a policy perspective, who is in the household will likely impact the effectiveness of programs designed to help parents and kids. For example, programs that seek to improve the parenting skills of low-income moms generally focus only on moms. They’ll teach mothers to use positive parenting skills, like avoiding spanking their kids. But what if grandma still uses corporal punishment?</p>
<p>We also know that, in general, people would <a href="http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XL/2/354.full.pdf+html">prefer</a> to <a href="https://poverty.umich.edu/files/2018/09/Pilkauskas_Michelmore_EITC_Housing_Sept2018.pdf">live independently</a> and that it can be challenging to <a href="https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pageid/2039">negotiate responsibilities</a> when living with others.</p>
<p>In other words, it’s a situation that most families would probably avoid if they could. So the fact that more people are living together suggests other larger societal and policy shifts are driving this trend.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104523/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha Pilkauskas has received funding from the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, American Education Research Association and the Institute for Research on Poverty. </span></em></p>Over the past 20 years, the number of American households that have grandparents, their kids and their grandkids living under the same roof has nearly doubled.Natasha Pilkauskas, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/982382018-06-27T02:37:58Z2018-06-27T02:37:58ZWhen it comes to childcare, grandparents are the least stressful option for mum and dad<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223720/original/file-20180619-38808-187aci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Around 40% of grandparents look after their grandchildren at least once a week.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As any mother or father will tell you, being a parent is hard. Being successful at it is highly dependent on the personal and material resources of parents, and the emotional, mental and physical needs of children. </p>
<p>There is a culture of expectation around parents, especially mothers, to be “good” parents, regardless of their chidren’s needs or challenges. Some people find parenting very stressful, which can cause a form of psychological strain known as parenting stress. </p>
<h2>What is parenting stress?</h2>
<p>Parenting stress can involve feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities, feeling trapped and exhausted, finding parenthood more work than pleasure, and experiencing difficulties in your relationship with your child. </p>
<p>Parenting stress can affect children as well. Children of parents with higher levels of parenting stress have poorer developmental outcomes, are more likely to experience behavioural problems and have strained relationships with them. </p>
<h2>What reduces parenting stress?</h2>
<p>Much of the research has focused on maternal parenting stress. This is because mothers are more likely to be primary caregivers, even though fathers have become more active in childcare. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mothers-have-little-to-show-for-extra-days-of-work-under-new-tax-changes-98467">Mothers have little to show for extra days of work under new tax changes</a>
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<p>Research on fathers and parenting stress tends not be on <em>their</em> parenting stress, but on their role in alleviating the mother’s parenting stress. Fathers who spend more time with their children, engaging in shared activities, such as reading and playing, have partners with lower levels of maternal parenting stress.</p>
<p>And when fathers take on child-related chores, such as caring for children while their partners are busy, mothers are found to report lower levels of stress.</p>
<p>In short, mothers’ parenting stress is lessened when their burden of care is reduced through fathers’ active participation in parenting. This is what sociologists call “role delegation”: strain can be reduced when social roles or aspects of them can be delegated to someone else. </p>
<h2>Can the use of nonparental care reduce parenting stress?</h2>
<p><a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0192513X18776419">Our research</a>, which uses data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, looks at whether the use of non-parental care might reduce parenting stress for mothers and fathers in the same way. </p>
<p>It is possible that non-parental care might increase, rather than reduce, parental stress, because of the associated time demands of organising childcare. Childcare can be unpredictable and unstable, which can affect work-family schedules, creating stress. So, using nonparental care might lead parents to feel pressed for time, which can lead to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9566.12300">poorer mental health</a>.</p>
<p>Also, parents are likely to worry about their children’s health and well-being even when they are in care. The use of childcare services can add to stress financially with childcare <a href="http://www.natsem.canberra.edu.au/storage/AMP_NATSEM_33.pdf">fees</a> costing up to $30,000 a year for some parents. </p>
<p>Our research also looks at whether different types of childcare are associated with more or less stress. Australian childcare varies by <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0192513X14531416">type</a>, covering formal day care and informal arrangements, such as the use of family and friends. </p>
<p>Families also vary in the packages or patterns of usage. For example, some households may use formal-only or a mix of informal and formal childcare. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13668803.2015.1027176?journalCode=ccwf20">Grandparent care</a> is by far the most common form of informal care, and around 40% of grandparents look after their grandchildren at least once a week. </p>
<h2>More time spent in childcare is more stressful for parents</h2>
<p>Our findings show the more time children spend in non-parental care, the greater level of parenting stress experienced by mothers and fathers. This finding is true of both mothers and fathers, which is surprising, given that mothers are often responsible for managing childcare. </p>
<p>We argue that while a father can assume the role of primary carer, relieving mothers of full parenting responsibility, replacement care does not relieve parents of role responsibility in the same way. </p>
<p>We found that mothers and fathers who used informal and family care had lower parenting stress scores, indicating less stress, than parents who used other childcare packages. Most of the informal and family care provided in our sample was undertaken by grandparents. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ageing-and-society/article/composition-of-parents-and-grandparents-childcare-time-gender-and-generational-patterns-in-activity-multitasking-and-copresence/1C578964511534B2AE711C35AC6EE2BB">Previous research</a> has found informal and family care arrangements, especially grandparent care, has advantages over other child care packages. It is more flexible and considerably cheaper than formal childcare.</p>
<p>The use of informal and family care may lower levels of parenting stress because using one’s own family members, such as a grandparent, is similar to co-parenting, as it involves sharing practical and emotional aspects of parenting. </p>
<h2>Implications</h2>
<p>Childcare is critical to mothers’ workforce participation, especially <a href="https://theconversation.com/proper-child-care-helps-poor-working-women-and-it-can-boost-economies-92935">impoverished women in developing economies</a>. Yet governments struggle to provide adequate childcare support for parents. </p>
<p>Formal care is the most common childcare package used in Australia, yet there are numerous issues including quality, cost, and fit. And as our research shows, it does not relieve parents of the stress that informal and family care does.</p>
<p>However, formal childcare is beneficial to children. <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-still-lagging-on-some-aspects-of-early-childhood-education-79660">Research</a> has shown that quality early childhood education is linked to better student learning outcomes at later ages. It is also <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/fact-sheets/the-impact-of-two-years-of-preschool/">linked</a> to a better start at school: children who attended early childcare education programs have better language, reading, numeracy and social skills. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grandparents-must-be-included-in-decisions-about-children-in-out-of-home-care-85094">Grandparents must be included in decisions about children in out-of-home care</a>
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<p>Our results may also explain <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-grandparent-childcare-is-helping-mums-back-into-work-86962">why</a> many grandmothers <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ageing-and-society/article/composition-of-parents-and-grandparents-childcare-time-gender-and-generational-patterns-in-activity-multitasking-and-copresence/1C578964511534B2AE711C35AC6EE2BB">provide</a> childcare for their families.</p>
<p>While for some grandparents, caring for their grandchildren is rewarding, is not without its <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/jg.pdf">challenges</a>, and grandparents often need a balance between their own lives and care commitments. Importantly, grandparents are now eligible for a childcare <a href="https://www.mychild.gov.au/childcare-information/grandparent">benefit</a>. </p>
<p>Grandparent care is not always available, especially as <a href="http://archive.treasury.gov.au/igr/igr2010/report/pdf/IGR_2010.pdf">governments</a> try to increase older female workforce participation. If both younger and older women need to increase their workforce participation, there will be increased pressure to use care outside the family. </p>
<p>Thus, governments need to acknowledge the stresses involved and ensure that families can access affordable, conveniently-located care. They must also ensure policies regarding labour force participation are complemented by a supportive and flexible high-quality child care.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98238/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lyn Craig receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Churchill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research shows that parenting stress is lowest if grandparents do some of the care - as opposed to more formal arrangements.Brendan Churchill, Research Fellow in Sociology, The University of MelbourneLyn Craig, Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/956642018-05-24T09:01:06Z2018-05-24T09:01:06ZHow the young get more than the elderly out of society – but not out of the state<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219975/original/file-20180522-51127-1siollj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/home">via shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Accusations levelled against the baby boomer generation <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/resolution-found-boomers_uk_5947f1fae4b0cddbb0085500">for hoarding too much</a> wealth and wielding too much “grey power” in an age of <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1225672">“gerontocracy”</a> have become commonplace across Europe. At the centre of this debate lies the question of what resources different generations pass on to each other – and what is fair. </p>
<p>But in a new research paper on <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2979171">intergenerational transfers</a>, demographers Robert Gal, Lili Vargha and I argue that it’s misleading to portray older people as benefiting more from society than younger people. </p>
<p>Complaints of intergenerational unfairness are often based purely on analysis of how much public money is spent on people at different stages of their lives. There are lots of available statistics on these state transfers, which makes them easier to analyse. But focusing on this public spending means researchers often ignore the massive resources that families themselves transfer among generations, in cash and in time. </p>
<p>We found that by looking at the amount of cash and time working aged people give to their own family members, it’s actually the young who turn out to get the most from society – but mainly from their parents, not states. </p>
<p>So much valuable time is spent within families in unpaid household labour, for instance, spent raising children and cooking, cleaning, and caring for them. And it’s often also spent caring for grandparents or great grandparents too if they become frailer. </p>
<p>In our research, we analysed both public policies around state transfers, as well as family cash transfers and time transfers for ten European countries in the early 21st century, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland and Sweden, and the UK. We found that welfare state spending in all these countries is indeed <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2416916">biased towards the elderly</a>. States do devote significantly more resources per capita to the old than to the young. </p>
<p>But once we also took into account family transfers of cash and time, the picture changes radically. European societies actually transfer more than twice as many per capita resources overall to children as they do to older people. In other words, Europe is a continent of pro-elderly welfare states, embedded within societies composed of strongly child oriented families. </p>
<h2>Time is of the essence</h2>
<p>Net time transfers from one generation to another are highest among newborns. Quite naturally, babies need the most time intensive care. During their first year of life, European babies receive on average more per capita in time alone than a person in the prime of their working life would earn in a year. In other words, they receive in time transfers the equivalent of more money than an average man aged 30 to 49 working in that country would receive as take home pay. </p>
<p>These time transfers subsequently decrease, but they remain substantial for a long time. In time transfers alone, five-year-olds still receive the equivalent of more than seven months’ wages of the average worker aged between 30 and 49. Children still receive more than a third of this income at age ten, and more than a fifth at age 15. Europeans only start giving time – mainly to children – from age 25. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219971/original/file-20180522-51135-4weu5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219971/original/file-20180522-51135-4weu5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219971/original/file-20180522-51135-4weu5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219971/original/file-20180522-51135-4weu5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219971/original/file-20180522-51135-4weu5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219971/original/file-20180522-51135-4weu5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219971/original/file-20180522-51135-4weu5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">What goes around comes around.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/three-men-generations-looking-down-into-265814510?src=_9eL5kndPxlEE8lxcwPtHQ-1-70">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>The largest net time contributors are in their thirties to mid-forties. This is the notorious “rush hour of life”, when many adults are simultaneously at the most stressful point in their careers and also shoulder the heaviest household and family care duties. Adults in Europe keep giving – rather than receiving – time from age 25 right until age 79. This reflects the housework, grandparenting, and other civil society activities undertaken by Europeans in their sixties and seventies. </p>
<h2>Childhood lasts until 25</h2>
<p>When we combined all three types of intergenerational transfer – public policies financed by taxes and social security contributions, and families’ transfers of both cash and time – we could then calculate the full net balance of all resources received at any stage of life. </p>
<p>All in all, children between birth and age nine receive the equivalent of between 12 and 17 months of what an average worker in the prime of their working life tends to earn in their country. This is more than even the very oldest receive – those aged 90 and above. Young Europeans still receive more than three quarters of that income, right until they reach age 17 – close to official voting age. </p>
<p>Our method allows us to define stages of the life cycle according to what we call “net total resource dependency” – the total resources people consume, minus their total contributions. The findings strongly question the conventional idea that childhood lasts until age 18, and old age starts from age 65. Instead, our research showed that childhood in Europe lasts on average until age 25, while old age starts at age 60. </p>
<p>So the key question is why don’t states take a greater role in helping families raise children? After all, children are public goods. Their future taxes, innovations and other contributions will later benefit all of society, including people who don’t become parents. </p>
<p>Since the start of the 21st century, politicians across the EU have increasingly proclaimed state investment in human capital as the new social policy paradigm. The EU <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=1044&newsId=1807&furtherNews=yes">continues to emphasise</a> the importance of “social investment” among its member states.</p>
<p>Yet despite much political rhetoric, actual state investment in children is still comparatively small in most of Europe, except for Scandinavian countries. In my <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2574845">research on early human capital investment</a>, I’ve shown that in the first decade of the 21st century, state spending on early childhood education and care averaged only 0.6% of GDP in the Western EU member states, and 0.4% in Eastern member states. This is a tiny fraction of state spending on unemployment, pensions or health care. </p>
<p>Remember that children are public goods. Since they are also ever scarcer in ageing societies, the case is even stronger for a lot more state investment in their skills and human capital.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pieter Vanhuysse receives funding from AGENTA project funded by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union (grant agreement no 613247) and the ‘Taking Age Discrimination Seriously’ project, based at the Institute of State and Law (Prague) and funded by the Grantová Agentura České Republiky (grant number 17-266295. </span></em></p>New research shows childhood in Europe lasts on average until age 25, while old age starts at 60.Pieter Vanhuysse MAE, Professor of Comparative Welfare State Research, University of Southern DenmarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/858932017-12-07T02:02:00Z2017-12-07T02:02:00ZWhy digital apps can be good gifts for young family members<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196239/original/file-20171123-21801-zwvhm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Apps can be digital toys used by children to design, create, build, investigate and imagine. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With Christmas approaching, many of us with preschool children or grandchildren will be considering the purchase of apps for our devices. </p>
<p>We are often portrayed in the media as “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/lisa-wilkinson-claims-parents-are-crazy-for-allowing-kids-under-five-access-to-ipads-20160927-grpq0c.html">bad parents or grandparents</a>” for purchasing apps for young family members. But in fact, appropriate educational apps can prepare children for life in an increasingly digital world where the availability of apps is growing every year.</p>
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<h2>Not all screen time is equal</h2>
<p>Concerns about the negative effects of technology are not new. In the past, television, VCR’s, computers, laptops and PlayStation have each been labelled as potential destroyers of the natural order of childhood through <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792691/">media overuse</a>. But the easy availability of apps has made this topic a hot button issue.</p>
<p>The main concern is “<a href="https://aifs.gov.au/publications/childrens-screen-time">screen time</a>”. Sedentary use of digital devices, like TV, computers and iPads, is associated with childhood obesity, poor verbal communication, damaging eyesight, the death of nursery rhymes, or digital addiction. </p>
<p>Apps are often labelled as “<a href="https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/does-your-child-have-a-digital-babysitter-071513.html">digital babysitters</a>”, used to give parents and grandparents a bit of adult time to prepare dinner or answer work emails or even sleep in.</p>
<p>While we acknowledge that extensive and unsupervised use of digital technologies may be harmful, not all screen time is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/health/features/stories/2015/03/23/4203084.htm">equal</a> in terms of outcomes for children.</p>
<p>For most children in the developed world, apps are a normal, everyday part of their life and will remain so. Apps are not new to young children. They interact with them in different ways to their parents and grandparents. Children use apps as a form of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1476718X15579746">digital play</a>. </p>
<h2>Government investment in app development</h2>
<p>The Australian government has invested in developing apps for children in the year before formal schooling under the supervision of a degree-qualified early learning teacher in a preschool service.</p>
<p>These apps are aligned with the <a href="http://files.acecqa.gov.au/files/National-Quality-Framework-Resources-Kit/belonging_being_and_becoming_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf">Early Years Learning Framework</a>. So, activities are underpinned by nationally-agreed educational policy for young children. </p>
<p>In 2017, the <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/early-learning-languages-australia">Early Learning Languages Australia</a> (ELLA) program was expanded across Australia with A$15.7 million to include more than 1,800 preschools and 61,000 children. It supports the development of languages other than English through seven apps in seven languages. An independent report pointed to <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/Evidence-Base-for-the-ELLA-Program">overwhelmingly positive feedback</a>.</p>
<p>The Australian government is also providing A$5.6 million over three years to pilot the development and use of apps to inspire young children in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The program called [Early Learning STEM Australia ](https://www.education.gov.au/nisa-early-learning-initiatives (ELSA) will be piloted in 100 preschool centres across Australia in 2018.</p>
<p>Given this substantial investment, as well as the expanding use of apps by preschool children, parents and grandparents should consider how they might maximise the benefits associated with app use by selecting apps appropriate for young children.</p>
<h2>Good apps for young children</h2>
<p>Over the past five years, as part of a range of university <a href="https://experts.griffith.edu.au/academic/k.larkin">research projects</a>, we have explored hundreds of children’s apps. While it’s accurate to say many apps for young children are very poor and model inappropriate levels of violence, stereotyping, or mindless activity, some apps may be an appropriate addition in the virtual Christmas stocking this year. </p>
<p>There are over 260,000 “<a href="http://www.pocketgamer.biz/metrics/app-store/categories/">educational</a>” apps available at the app store alone. So, to save valuable Christmas shopping time we suggest <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GL_YAJZMeCNw_6fi7I3tzcp0uJTG-vtrSsllhVsIzNM/edit?usp=sharing">ten appropriate apps for preschool children</a>: </p>
<ol>
<li><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/starfall-abcs/id395623983?mt=8">Starfall ABC</a> helps children develop reading skills</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/touchcounts/id897302197?mt=8">TouchCounts</a> lets children use their fingers, eyes and ears to learn to count, add and subtract</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/play-school-play-time/id689871248?mt=8">Play School Play Time</a> encourages kids to play with time while celebrating Humpty’s birthday </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/play-doh-touch-shape-scan-explore/id1092148948?mt=8">Play-Doh Touch</a> allows children to shape a creation with Play-Doh, scan it into virtual reality with the app and build a world of their own creation</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/loopimal-by-yatatoy/id964743113?mt=8">LOOPIMAL</a> is an app to help young children learn about making music</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shape-gurus-teach-shapes-for-my-preschooler/id1015403712?mt=8">Shape Gurus</a> allows children to solve puzzles with shapes and colours as they make their way through an interactive story </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/ukloo/id672310847?mt=8">uKloo</a> is a fun seek-and-find literacy game for preschool children</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/code-karts-pre-coding-logic/id1222704761?mt=8">Code Karts</a> introduces pre-coding to children from the age of four through a series of logical puzzles presented in the form of a raceway</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/crazy-gears/id967327312?mt=8">Crazy Gears</a> is a digital puzzle game, designed with a real mechanical engine and with children’s critical thinking skills in mind</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/gonoodle-kids/id1050712293?mt=8">Go Noodle</a> gets kids moving with screen-time, and has simple mindfulness and yoga activities to help kids relax. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>We looked for apps that form a bridge between digital and non-digital play and encourage children to develop literacy, numeracy, and STEM understanding in playful ways. </p>
<p>Apps then become digital toys to be used by children to design, create, build, <a href="http://adayinfirstgrade.com/2017/03/our-butterfly-inquiry.html">investigate</a> and imagine as they play. </p>
<p>In the digital world we live in now, the decision for parents and grandparents is not the “should or should not” of app use, but rather “how”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85893/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Larkin works for Griffith University. He received funding from the Australian Government to investigate quality apps. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kym Simoncini works for the University of Canberra. She received funding from the Australian Government to investigate quality apps.</span></em></p>Apps which encourage children to develop language, literacy, numeracy and critical thinking skills through play are excellent gifts this Christmas.Kevin Larkin, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education, Griffith UniversityKym Simoncini, Assistant Professor in Early Childhood and Primary Education, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/869622017-11-07T13:51:40Z2017-11-07T13:51:40ZHow grandparent childcare is helping mums back into work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193544/original/file-20171107-1017-v84lmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Grandma time. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is taken for granted that grandparents care for their grandchildren – so much so that their presence at the school gates every afternoon is hardly noticed. Yet our new <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-social-policy/article/grandparent-care-a-key-factor-in-mothers-labour-force-participation-in-the-uk/F2275031F62AE37883E88FAEBD7F2EEC">research</a> shows that grandparents are the first named source of after-school and weekend childcare for about a third of families who have a child starting primary school. </p>
<p>Our analysis also shows just how important childcare by grandparents has been in enabling an increase in mothers’ participation in the labour market in recent decades. </p>
<p>We analysed data on 14,951 children and their families from the <a href="http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/page.aspx?sitesectionid=851">Millennium Cohort Study</a>, which has been following a group of children born in the UK between 2000-01. We looked at families with at least one child who was in the first year of primary school, some of whom also had younger and older siblings. </p>
<p>It is <a href="https://academic.oup.com/esr/article-abstract/29/1/74/529601?redirectedFrom=fulltext">still overwhelmingly mothers</a> who change their work patterns when children enter the scene. For those women who are back at work and have at least one child in the first year of primary school, we found that 32% of those with a partner and 36% of lone mothers named grandparents as the main source of after-school and weekend care for their children while they are working. </p>
<p>Both sets of grandparents are involved in childcare, but our previous research found that maternal grandmothers provide <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ri3hmBL_I9kC&oi=fnd&pg=PA129&dq=shireen+kanji&ots=hqFUQoGam6&sig=V-fTQH_v8wYLI-DbgG8X3ToWEoU#v=onepage&q=shireen%20kanji&f=false">care most often</a> – something that <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2011.00379.x/abstract">happens around the world</a>. </p>
<p>One of the hidden aspects of grandparents’ involvement in childcare is that it has actually helped more mothers to enter paid work in recent decades. Between 1996 and 2017, the overall employment rate of mothers of children of all ages in England <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/familiesandthelabourmarketengland/2017">increased</a> by 11.8 percentage points to 73.7%.</p>
<p>Our statistical modelling showed that grandparent childcare raised mothers’ of four and five-year-olds participation in the labour market by 26%, compared to if grandparents had not provided childcare. Some mothers who used grandparent care would have gone to work anyway but others only went back to work because they were able to rely on grandparents, either for cost reasons or because they preferred leaving their child with their relative.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193546/original/file-20171107-1014-lggk4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193546/original/file-20171107-1014-lggk4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193546/original/file-20171107-1014-lggk4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193546/original/file-20171107-1014-lggk4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193546/original/file-20171107-1014-lggk4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193546/original/file-20171107-1014-lggk4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193546/original/file-20171107-1014-lggk4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many working mothers rely on grandparents for childcare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Help all round</h2>
<p>We found that grandparents help mothers with all levels of qualifications get back to work. They help mothers with degree-level qualifications, who are the most likely to be in paid work after having children. But they can also make all the difference for mothers with a lower level of qualifications or without any qualifications, for whom getting stable work and childcare is the most challenging. </p>
<p>Our research also found that a surprisingly high proportion of children lived very close to their grandparents: around 40% of four and five-year-old children live less than 15 minutes away from their maternal grandparents although they tended to live further away from paternal grandparents. Other studies have also found that a high proportion of grandchildren <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192513X09360499">meet their grandparents on a weekly</a> or daily basis.</p>
<p>There is little evidence about why grandparents are providing care, and whether it’s because parents prefer grandparent care. Some research seems to suggest that when formal childcare is available and funded then parents <a href="https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/wps/WP201622.pdf">seem to take it</a> but when there is a shortage of childcare, grandparents tends to <a href="http://www.tandfebooks.com/action/showBook?doi=10.4324/9780203020784">fill the void</a>. </p>
<p>In the US, research has shown that an increase in lone mothers’ income led to a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11150-013-9221-x">decrease in grandparents’ care</a> as the mother paid for formal childcare. Yet from the grandparents’ perspective, we still don’t know much about the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/innovateage/article/1/suppl_1/103/3901505">choices grandparents</a> make about whether to care for their grandchildren or to participate in paid work or whether to combine both. </p>
<p>These questions are at the centre of dramatic changes to the labour market, both in the number of mothers going back to work, and in the requirement that older workers should extend their paid working lives to support themselves until they reach the recently increased <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40658774">pension age</a>. All this means a lot more pressure on both grandparents’ time, and their finances.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shireen Kanji does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research shows just how key grandparents are to childcare.Shireen Kanji, Reader in Work and Organisation, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.