Family relations and health inequalities: Grandparents and grandchildren

A plethora of studies provide evidence of family relationships’ key role in individuals’ well-being across the entire life course and particularly at older ages. When discussing the relationship between health inequalities and family relations, the present chapter thus places a particular emphasis on grandparents and grandchildren. After briefly reviewing the link between adult parent–child relationship qualities and health inequalities (Section 2), we then take the grandparents’ perspective (Section 3) to discuss, first, the effects of grandparenthood (that is, the transition into a new social and family role in later life and the status of being a grandparent) and, second, the effects of active grandparenting (such as the provision of grandchild care) on grandparents’ well-being. We then complement the grandparents’ perspective by assessing research on health inequalities in grandchildren (Section 4). The chapter concludes with policy recommendations and perspectives for future research (Section 5).