Longitudinal Patterns of Grandchild Care in South Korea

This study examined the longitudinal patterns of grandchild care to observe the influence of factors related to social participation, financial support to grandparents, demographic characteristics, and family structure on classifying the grandchild care. The rate of grandparent care for grandchildren was increasing, and the amount of time commitment for grandchild care was large in South Korea. Understanding how grandchild care unfolds over time and who is likely to provide ongoing grandchild care helps to advance the knowledge about grandparents providing grandchild care. The total sample consisted of 333 South Korean grandparents derived from the 3 waves of nationally representative data. This study utilized growth mixture modeling to identify latent classes of longitudinal patterns of grandchild care, and ran a multinomial logistic regression to examine the relationships between factors related to grandparents, adult children, and family structure and the identified latent classes. Grandchild care was classified into one of three categories: low-level decrease, high-level decrease, and low-to-high increase. Grandparents in the group of low-to-high increase were more likely to have higher financial dependence on adult children and have lower social participation than grandparents in other groups. Findings indicate that there are distinct subgroups among grandparents who care for their grandchildren. Additionally, those in the three classifications varied according to financial support received from adult children, social participation, and personal and family structure. Our findings inform policymakers to provide older adults a means to maintain their self-sufficiency. The community needs to provide programs and resources for working parents on behalf of grandchild care.