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Italian grandparenthood within the European context: an introduction

Italian grandparenthood within the European context: an introduction cecilia.tomassini@unimol.it 1 This thematic collection seeks to reflect and push forward the current state of the Institute of Gerontology, King’s College London, London, UK art in the study of grandparenthood and grandparenting in Italy in a comparative University of Bologna, Bologna, European perspective. Starting from the demography of grandparenthood, inter- Italy 3 generational transfers, contacts and living proximity between grandparents, parents University of Florence, Florence, Italy and children and the characteristics of such exchanges are analysed. Furthermore, University of Molise, the consequences of grandparenting and especially of grandchild care provision in Campobasso, Italy terms of fertility behaviour and work participation and well-being are investigated. The research articles aim to shed light on the complexity of factors which shape the effects of grandparents’ availability and the behaviour and well-being of each of the three generations involved. Introduction Research on grandparents and grandparenthood is flourishing in most ageing socie - ties around the globe. Grandparents play an important role in family life as providers of financial, emotional, and practical support given population ageing and changing gen - erational configurations from a pyramid-shape towards a ‘beanpole’ family type (Hank et  al., 2018; Herlofson & Hagestad, 2012). This change is caused in part by rising life expectancy; it is now common for a child to grow up with living grandparents and even great grandparents (Murphy, 2011), bringing new opportunities and challenges for inter- generational family relations (Leopold & Skopek, 2015b; Margolis, 2016). Alongside demographic trends come socio-economic change: more mothers in paid work, greater labour market instability, higher rates of divorce and relationship breakdown, and cuts to public services (including formal childcare) may also lead to an increasing role for grandparents in family life (Aassve et al., 2012a; Di Gessa et al., 2016a; Herlofson & Hag- estad, 2012). Grandparents thus become vital both to the care of grandchildren from infancy to adolescence, but also as sources of social and economic support as their chil- dren reconcile work and family related responsibilities and deal with the financial dif - ficulties associated with precarious and/or low paid jobs (Albertini, 2016). At the same time, however, grandparents’ involvement in the extended family is being challenged by increasing pressures to postpone retirement. © The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the mate- rial. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen ses/ by/4. 0/. Glaser et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 2 of 9 In this context, the Italian case deserves particular attention due to its high preva- lence of intensive grandparent care, and it is therefore the focus of this thematic issue. In many Southern European countries like Italy, the norm is either that mothers are at home and thus excluded from the paid labour market, or mothers work full-time and are reliant on grandparents’ (particularly grandmothers’) support (Bordone et al., 2016; Price et al., 2020). Such high levels of intergenerational support are facilitated by another feature of Italian (and Southern European) societies: high levels of residential proximity between grandparents, parents, and their young grandchildren (Tomassini et al., 2003). The potential availability of grandparents has far-reaching consequences in the Italian context, also affecting couple’s fertility behaviour (Aassve et  al., 2012a). Nevertheless, even in Italy, where divorce rates are comparatively low and workers tend to retire early compared to other high-income countries, evidence suggests that rises in divorce and recent increases to minimum retirement age are challenging grandparents’ ability to ful- fil their traditional role (Zamberletti et al., 2018). The Italian case is also of interest given the significant heterogeneity of intergenerational relations across Italian regions. For instance, the prevalence of multigenerational households, intergenerational contacts and grandchild care (respectively) is significantly higher in southern regions in comparison to northern (Zamberletti et al., 2018); regional contextual factors (e.g., formal childcare, women’s labour force participation rates) may act to moderate the grandparental role. u Th s, both the importance and the considerable heterogeneity of Italian grandparent - hood and grandparents, as well as the changing circumstances in which they are situ- ated, makes Italy a useful case study from which to examine wider variations and trends in grandparenthood and their implications and makes this thematic series on “Italian grandparenthood within the European context” an important contribution to the scien- tific literature on the topic. Demography of grandparenthood The extent to which grandparents are involved in multigenerational family relations depends on several demographic factors, particularly the timing of fertility and mortal- ity. However, evidence on the timing of the transition to grandparenthood, particularly in Europe, remains scarce. This is because few studies collect information on the year of birth of the oldest grandchild (Hank et  al., 2018). Leopold and Skopek (2015a, 2015b), comparing data from Europe and North America, showed that the length of an individu- al’s life as a grandparent varied considerably across countries and was closely associated with cross-national differences in the timing of childbearing (Leopold & Skopek, 2015b). Increases in the median age of becoming a grandparent were found in a US study using a microsimulation approach (Margolis & Verdery, 2019) as well as in a study using Canadian survey data (Margolis, 2016). Such findings may suggest that the number of years grandparents spend living with grandchildren is decreasing, despite continuous improvements in survival at older ages (Margolis, 2016). But delays in the transition to grandparenthood due to delayed childbearing may be offset by increases in the length of healthy grandparenthood (Margolis & Wright, 2017). According to Eurostat data, women’s employment rate in 2021 was 53.2 in Italy, vs. 67.7 in the EU27 area. Glaser  et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 3 of 9 Using Italy as a case study, Di Gessa et al. (2020) explored postponement in the tran- sition to grandparenthood in more detail, focusing on the role of fertility decline. In line with Leopold and Skopek’s (2015a, 2015b) results for East and West Germany, they found an increase in the median age of attaining grandparenthood in Italy (by about 5 years for those born in the 1940s in comparison to those born in the 1920s), particu- larly among those with smaller families and with later born children (Di Gessa et  al., 2020; Leopold & Skopek, 2015a). Analysing change in Italy over the last two decades in this thematic issue, Cisotto and colleagues (2022) also show continued increases in grandparenthood to older ages. Yet, contrary to earlier expectations, the authors find that the combination of delays in the timing of grandparenthood and increases in life expectancy have led to stability rather than decline in co-survival between grandpar- ents and grandchildren (Cisotto et  al., 2022). Rising age at grandparenthood of course has important implications for grandchild care, due to the association between age and labour force participation, economic resources, and health status. Co‑residence, childcare, frequency of contact Although the grandparental role may be enacted in different ways (Silverstein & Marenco, 2001), large-scale studies have largely focused on selected transfers: co-res- idence between grandparents and grandchildren, grandparents as providers of infor- mal childcare to families and, to a lower extent, intergenerational face-to-face contacts mediating emotional and social support (Pasqualini et  al., 2021). However, as noted in this thematic issue, we know little about changes over time in these relationships. Some scholars and a number of commentators in the public debate have hypothesised that industrialisation and urbanisation would lead to a decline in intergenerational exchanges (Popenoe, 1993), but recent research suggests that levels of solidarity between family members across generations remain overall high and stable (Steinbach et al., 2020). The little evidence that exists on changes in grandparent–grandchild exchanges over time focuses on co-residence. Moreover, most evidence to date on grandparental– grandchild co-residence comes largely from the United States (US), a country that has experienced significant increases in the prevalence of multigenerational and grandpar - ent households since the 1970s (Dunifon et al., 2014; Pew Research Center, 2010, 2013, 2014). This research shows that US grandparents living in households with their grand - children are more likely to be socio-economically disadvantaged compared to other grandparents (Dunifon et  al., 2014; Fuller-Thomson & Minkler, 2001; Fuller-Thomson et al., 1997; Minkler & Fuller-Thomson, 2005; Mutchler & Baker, 2004). In Europe, cuts to public services in response to the international financial crisis have also raised con - cerns that it is those with the fewest resources who are increasingly likely to rely on grandparental support (Glaser et al., 2018); in a recent study of six European countries and the United States from the 1980s to the 2010s, the authors found that the propor- tion of three-generation households increased only in the United States and in Romania (but not in Greece, Portugal or Spain) (Glaser et  al., 2018). However, in all the coun- tries studied, co-resident grandparent households were characterised by socio-economic disadvantage. In this thematic issue, Pasqualini et  al. (2021) have shown that despite socio-demographic changes, co-residence between grandparents and grandchildren remained broadly stable between 1998 and 2016 in Italy. Moreover, as in Glaser et  al. Glaser et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 4 of 9 (2018), Pasqualini and colleagues (2021) found that grandparents with lower educational and income levels were more likely to co-reside with grandchildren, with this association persisting across the period considered. A well-established body of work shows that around the globe grandparents are sig- nificant providers of grandchild care (Grundy et  al., 2012; Knodel & Nguyen, 2014; Ko & Hank, 2013; Ku et al., 2013); however, cross-national and intra-national comparisons are complicated by different definitions (Hank et al., 2018) as well as different measure - ment scales of frequency (from regular to occasional or only for special occasions) and intensity (from a few hours per year to several times per day) (Glaser, 2013; Glaser et al., 2013; Herlofson & Hagestad, 2012). In Europe, in 2004/2005, 58% of grandmothers and 49% of grandfathers looked after at least one grandchild under the age of 16 (Hank & Buber, 2009), with 12% providing care almost daily or at least 15  h a week (Di Gessa et al., 2016a). However, as discussed by Pasqualini et  al. (2021), few studies examine changes in grandparental care over time. Guerts et  al. (2015) using data from the Longitudinal Study of Amsterdam found an increase in grandparental childcare from 23% in 1992 to 41% in 2006, a rise they attribute to greater maternal labour force participation (Geurts et  al., 2015). As for grandparent-grandchild co-residence, Pasqualini et  al. (2021) has shown broad stability from 1998 to 2016 in grandparent–grandchild transfers in Italy in both childcare and frequency of contact, with few changes in the associations between demographic and socio-economic characteristics and grandparent–grandchild transfers despite significant changes in the characteristics of Italian grandparents (such as rising ages and levels of divorce) (Pasqualini et al., 2021). Another important issue likely to be modifying intergenerational contact is greater availability and use of digital communication technologies (Danielsbacka et  al., 2022). Arpino et al. (2022) in this thematic issue compared digital contact between grandpar- ents and grandchildren with traditional forms of contact (i.e. face-to-face and by tel- ephone) (Arpino et  al., 2022). Their findings showed how grandparents belonging to younger cohorts, those with higher education, those living in urban areas and those in better health were more likely to maintain digital contact with their grandchildren. Mainly, digital contact tends to compensate for a lack of (frequent) face-to-face contact, and to combine with telephone contact to overcome the problem of geographical dis- tance between generations. Adult children’s labour force participation and division of unpaid housework Numerous studies have investigated the impact of grandparent availability on a wide range of issues, including younger generations’ labour force participation and fertility behaviour. For instance, research shows that the provision of regular grandchild care may facilitate labour force participation among the middle generation (and daughters/ mothers in particular) (Aassve et al., 2012a; Arpino et al., 2014) particularly where little formal childcare is available (Bordone et al., 2016; Di Gessa et al., 2016a). Help to parents (to give them a break, help them go to work, or go out) is the most often reported reason for grandchild care provision (Di Gessa et al., 2020), with more frequent grandchild care being reported in families where parents are in low-paid or insecure jobs or had fewer economic resources (Airey et al., 2020; Arpino et al., 2014). Glaser  et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 5 of 9 At the same time, it is argued that grandparental childcare is associated with entry into parenthood among the middle generation (Aassve et al., 2012b; Pink, 2018; Rutigli- ano, 2020; Thomese & Liefbroer, 2013), with evidence suggesting that grandparents even adapt their retirement preferences (Hochman & Lewin-Epstein, 2013) as well as its tim- ing (Lumsdaine & Vermeer, 2015; Van Bavel & De Winter, 2013) to fit in with their adult children’s fertility behaviour. However, as noted by Rutigliano and Lozano (2022) in this thematic issue, much less is known about the association between grandparental support and fertility intentions rather than behaviour, and the findings on this latter issue are mixed (Rutigliano & Lozano, 2022). On the one hand, recent work in Germany does not show an association between older parents’ transfers to adult children and fertility inten- tions regarding a first or second child (Tanskanen & Danielsbacka, 2021). On the other hand, a positive association between grandparental care and fertility intentions is appar- ent in Norway and France (Tanskanen & Rotkirch, 2014). Rutigliano and Lozano (2022) find that the receipt of grandparental support has a positive and significant impact on women’s but not men’s fertility intentions in Spain, a Southern European country like Italy. This is especially the case among more highly educated Spanish women, that is those who are more likely to experience greater work–family conflict and who, in the context of societies with little formal childcare provision, are more likely to rely on the extended family to support their full-time labour market participation. In this thematic issue Albertini and Tosi (2022) explore another aspect of adult chil- dren’s lives in which grandparent availability may play a role: the (gendered) division of unpaid housework (Albertini & Tosi, 2022). In several European societies, it has been observed that in recent years—perhaps because of changing social roles and increased women’s participation in paid labour (Grunow & Evertsson, 2019)—men’s participa- tion in the provision of childcare has increased. This is more so among highly educated couples. At the same time, no matching trend has been observed in the gendered divi- sion of household chores, and particularly of routine tasks, which remain an important dimension of gender inequality within families and society (Bianchi et  al., 2012; Carri- ero & Todesco, 2018). Albertini and Tosi (2022) ask if, as with formal childcare services, the availability of grandparents and the support they provide is associated with a more gender-equal division of housework among Italian heterosexual couples with minor chil- dren. Their findings show no clear association between face-to-face contacts between grandparents and adult children and the symmetry of the division of household labour. At the same time, however, they show that three-generation households with minor grandchildren are characterised by a more gender-equal division of household tasks than that observed in two-generation households with minor children. In particular, the positive role of living with grandparents is higher than that of hiring a babysitter and equivalent to that of hiring a professional housekeeper. Grandparent labour force participation, health, and well‑being Becoming a grandparent and looking after grandchildren may also influence grand - parents’ labour market participation, health, and well-being (Arpino et  al., 2014; Bordone & Arpino, 2022; Chen & Liu, 2012; Di Gessa et al., 2016a, 2016c; Tsai et al., 2013). A growing body of literature shows an association between becoming a grand- parent/transitioning to grandparenthood and leaving work and/or working fewer Glaser et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 6 of 9 hours (Backhaus & Barslund, 2021; Lumsdaine & Vermeer, 2015; Rupert & Zanella, 2018; Van Bavel & De Winter, 2013; Zanasi et  al., 2020). A key gap in the literature is the question of how life-course circumstances and events influence labour market participation and grandparental childcare in later life. Zanasi and colleagues (2020) found that in England first-time grandmothers with continuous work careers or short employment interruptions—i.e. those with lower opportunity costs in withdrawing from paid work—were more likely to leave employment (Zanasi et  al., 2020). In this thematic issue, Zanasi and colleagues (2022) also show that among Italian grand- mothers, those who have ever worked are more likely to provide grandchild care in comparison to those with no labour market attachment, especially when adult chil- dren are in paid employment (Zanasi et  al., 2022). This is in direct contrast to those who would argue that older mothers who prioritise family obligations over paid work roles are more likely to assume family responsibilities in later life. In fact, older moth- ers who have been in paid employment throughout their lives are more likely to pro- vide the necessary support to permit their adult children (predominately daughters) to engage in paid work thus maintaining a critical link to the labour market (Zanasi et  al., 2022). One could hypothesise, therefore, that grandmothers’ desire to trans- mit the role of “working mother” and the empathy towards the common condi- tion of mother and daughter largely offsets other potential social and psychological mechanisms. The link between grandparental relations and health has been extensively investigated across different societal contexts (ranging from Chile to the U.S., Europe, and China) (Arpino & Bordone, 2014; Chen & Liu, 2012; Di Gessa et al., 2016b, 2016c; Grundy et al., 2012; Tsai et al., 2013). Evidence on the impact of being a grandparent and grandparen- tal care on health and well-being continues to be mixed. On the one hand, detrimental health effects are found particularly among grandparents who co-reside with grandchil - dren, whereas less intensive grandchild care seems to have either beneficial or no major widespread health effects after socio-economic and demographic characteristics along with prior health status are taken into account. The health effects of grandchild care seem to depend on several factors including the frequency and nature of interactions, the regional/cultural context, the health measures considered, and the type of analytical approaches used. For example, recent work examining the rejuvenating effect of grand - child care (how old one feels is strongly associated with indicators of well-being) has found that grandchild care did not make grandparents feel any younger than their actual age (Bordone & Arpino, 2022). The authors were able to investigate this issue using lon - gitudinal panel data methods and attributed this non-finding to selection effects: that is, grandparents in good health and feeling young may be more likely to look after grand- children. Yang et al. (2022) in this thematic issue further advances our understanding of the link between grandparental childcare and well-being through their investigation of how this relationship may be moderated by contextual effects—in this case, a country’s GDP (gross domestic product). The findings suggest that grandparents providing more intensive grandchild care report fewer depressive symptoms to a greater extent in lower income European countries in comparison to their counterparts in higher income Euro- pean countries (Yang et al., 2022). Such results suggest an important role for contextual factors in modifying the beneficial impact of grandchild care on mental health. Glaser  et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 7 of 9 Conclusion The contributions to this thematic issue demonstrate the importance of (a) gathering greater detail on specific societal contexts to better understand multigenerational family functioning and the changing social role of grandparents; (b) considering changes over time in grandparental characteristics and transfers; and (c) the complexity of factors which shape the effects of grandparents’ availability and the behaviour and well-being of each of the three generations involved. Naturally, the scope to provide comprehensive answers to any of these questions is limited, even in this thematic issue that the Edi- tors of Genus have generously allocated. We sincerely hope that the articles collected here will stimulate further research (in Italy and in Europe as well as beyond), which will eventually allow us to get closer to filling at least some of the critical gaps in our knowl - edge about grandparents—and to develop new questions for future research. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the participants of the network Grandparenting in Europe and the Free University of Bozen for the support of the network. Author contributions All authors contributed to the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Funding No funding has to be acknowledged. Availability of data and materials None. Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate Accepted. Consent for publication Accepted. 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European Sociological Review, 29(6), 1295–1308. Yang, Y., Evandrou, M., & Vlachantoni, A. (2022). The impact of grandchild care provision on grandparents’ depressive symptoms across Europe using multi-level analysis: Do the grandchild caring patterns and the country’s economy matter? Genus, 78(1), 1–22. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1186/ s41118- 022- 00160-y Zamberletti, J., Cavrini, G., & Tomassini, C. (2018). Grandparents providing childcare in Italy. European Journal of Ageing, 15(3), 265–275. Zanasi, F., Arpino, B., Pirani, E., et al. (2022). Work histories and provision of grandparental childcare among Italian older women. Genus, 78(1), 1–27. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1186/ s41118- 022- 00158-6 Zanasi, F., Sieben, I., & Uunk, W. (2020). Work history, economic resources, and women’s labour market withdrawal after the birth of the first grandchild. European Journal of Ageing, 17(1), 109–118. Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Genus Springer Journals

Italian grandparenthood within the European context: an introduction

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Abstract

cecilia.tomassini@unimol.it 1 This thematic collection seeks to reflect and push forward the current state of the Institute of Gerontology, King’s College London, London, UK art in the study of grandparenthood and grandparenting in Italy in a comparative University of Bologna, Bologna, European perspective. Starting from the demography of grandparenthood, inter- Italy 3 generational transfers, contacts and living proximity between grandparents, parents University of Florence, Florence, Italy and children and the characteristics of such exchanges are analysed. Furthermore, University of Molise, the consequences of grandparenting and especially of grandchild care provision in Campobasso, Italy terms of fertility behaviour and work participation and well-being are investigated. The research articles aim to shed light on the complexity of factors which shape the effects of grandparents’ availability and the behaviour and well-being of each of the three generations involved. Introduction Research on grandparents and grandparenthood is flourishing in most ageing socie - ties around the globe. Grandparents play an important role in family life as providers of financial, emotional, and practical support given population ageing and changing gen - erational configurations from a pyramid-shape towards a ‘beanpole’ family type (Hank et  al., 2018; Herlofson & Hagestad, 2012). This change is caused in part by rising life expectancy; it is now common for a child to grow up with living grandparents and even great grandparents (Murphy, 2011), bringing new opportunities and challenges for inter- generational family relations (Leopold & Skopek, 2015b; Margolis, 2016). Alongside demographic trends come socio-economic change: more mothers in paid work, greater labour market instability, higher rates of divorce and relationship breakdown, and cuts to public services (including formal childcare) may also lead to an increasing role for grandparents in family life (Aassve et al., 2012a; Di Gessa et al., 2016a; Herlofson & Hag- estad, 2012). Grandparents thus become vital both to the care of grandchildren from infancy to adolescence, but also as sources of social and economic support as their chil- dren reconcile work and family related responsibilities and deal with the financial dif - ficulties associated with precarious and/or low paid jobs (Albertini, 2016). At the same time, however, grandparents’ involvement in the extended family is being challenged by increasing pressures to postpone retirement. © The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the mate- rial. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen ses/ by/4. 0/. Glaser et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 2 of 9 In this context, the Italian case deserves particular attention due to its high preva- lence of intensive grandparent care, and it is therefore the focus of this thematic issue. In many Southern European countries like Italy, the norm is either that mothers are at home and thus excluded from the paid labour market, or mothers work full-time and are reliant on grandparents’ (particularly grandmothers’) support (Bordone et al., 2016; Price et al., 2020). Such high levels of intergenerational support are facilitated by another feature of Italian (and Southern European) societies: high levels of residential proximity between grandparents, parents, and their young grandchildren (Tomassini et al., 2003). The potential availability of grandparents has far-reaching consequences in the Italian context, also affecting couple’s fertility behaviour (Aassve et  al., 2012a). Nevertheless, even in Italy, where divorce rates are comparatively low and workers tend to retire early compared to other high-income countries, evidence suggests that rises in divorce and recent increases to minimum retirement age are challenging grandparents’ ability to ful- fil their traditional role (Zamberletti et al., 2018). The Italian case is also of interest given the significant heterogeneity of intergenerational relations across Italian regions. For instance, the prevalence of multigenerational households, intergenerational contacts and grandchild care (respectively) is significantly higher in southern regions in comparison to northern (Zamberletti et al., 2018); regional contextual factors (e.g., formal childcare, women’s labour force participation rates) may act to moderate the grandparental role. u Th s, both the importance and the considerable heterogeneity of Italian grandparent - hood and grandparents, as well as the changing circumstances in which they are situ- ated, makes Italy a useful case study from which to examine wider variations and trends in grandparenthood and their implications and makes this thematic series on “Italian grandparenthood within the European context” an important contribution to the scien- tific literature on the topic. Demography of grandparenthood The extent to which grandparents are involved in multigenerational family relations depends on several demographic factors, particularly the timing of fertility and mortal- ity. However, evidence on the timing of the transition to grandparenthood, particularly in Europe, remains scarce. This is because few studies collect information on the year of birth of the oldest grandchild (Hank et  al., 2018). Leopold and Skopek (2015a, 2015b), comparing data from Europe and North America, showed that the length of an individu- al’s life as a grandparent varied considerably across countries and was closely associated with cross-national differences in the timing of childbearing (Leopold & Skopek, 2015b). Increases in the median age of becoming a grandparent were found in a US study using a microsimulation approach (Margolis & Verdery, 2019) as well as in a study using Canadian survey data (Margolis, 2016). Such findings may suggest that the number of years grandparents spend living with grandchildren is decreasing, despite continuous improvements in survival at older ages (Margolis, 2016). But delays in the transition to grandparenthood due to delayed childbearing may be offset by increases in the length of healthy grandparenthood (Margolis & Wright, 2017). According to Eurostat data, women’s employment rate in 2021 was 53.2 in Italy, vs. 67.7 in the EU27 area. Glaser  et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 3 of 9 Using Italy as a case study, Di Gessa et al. (2020) explored postponement in the tran- sition to grandparenthood in more detail, focusing on the role of fertility decline. In line with Leopold and Skopek’s (2015a, 2015b) results for East and West Germany, they found an increase in the median age of attaining grandparenthood in Italy (by about 5 years for those born in the 1940s in comparison to those born in the 1920s), particu- larly among those with smaller families and with later born children (Di Gessa et  al., 2020; Leopold & Skopek, 2015a). Analysing change in Italy over the last two decades in this thematic issue, Cisotto and colleagues (2022) also show continued increases in grandparenthood to older ages. Yet, contrary to earlier expectations, the authors find that the combination of delays in the timing of grandparenthood and increases in life expectancy have led to stability rather than decline in co-survival between grandpar- ents and grandchildren (Cisotto et  al., 2022). Rising age at grandparenthood of course has important implications for grandchild care, due to the association between age and labour force participation, economic resources, and health status. Co‑residence, childcare, frequency of contact Although the grandparental role may be enacted in different ways (Silverstein & Marenco, 2001), large-scale studies have largely focused on selected transfers: co-res- idence between grandparents and grandchildren, grandparents as providers of infor- mal childcare to families and, to a lower extent, intergenerational face-to-face contacts mediating emotional and social support (Pasqualini et  al., 2021). However, as noted in this thematic issue, we know little about changes over time in these relationships. Some scholars and a number of commentators in the public debate have hypothesised that industrialisation and urbanisation would lead to a decline in intergenerational exchanges (Popenoe, 1993), but recent research suggests that levels of solidarity between family members across generations remain overall high and stable (Steinbach et al., 2020). The little evidence that exists on changes in grandparent–grandchild exchanges over time focuses on co-residence. Moreover, most evidence to date on grandparental– grandchild co-residence comes largely from the United States (US), a country that has experienced significant increases in the prevalence of multigenerational and grandpar - ent households since the 1970s (Dunifon et al., 2014; Pew Research Center, 2010, 2013, 2014). This research shows that US grandparents living in households with their grand - children are more likely to be socio-economically disadvantaged compared to other grandparents (Dunifon et  al., 2014; Fuller-Thomson & Minkler, 2001; Fuller-Thomson et al., 1997; Minkler & Fuller-Thomson, 2005; Mutchler & Baker, 2004). In Europe, cuts to public services in response to the international financial crisis have also raised con - cerns that it is those with the fewest resources who are increasingly likely to rely on grandparental support (Glaser et al., 2018); in a recent study of six European countries and the United States from the 1980s to the 2010s, the authors found that the propor- tion of three-generation households increased only in the United States and in Romania (but not in Greece, Portugal or Spain) (Glaser et  al., 2018). However, in all the coun- tries studied, co-resident grandparent households were characterised by socio-economic disadvantage. In this thematic issue, Pasqualini et  al. (2021) have shown that despite socio-demographic changes, co-residence between grandparents and grandchildren remained broadly stable between 1998 and 2016 in Italy. Moreover, as in Glaser et  al. Glaser et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 4 of 9 (2018), Pasqualini and colleagues (2021) found that grandparents with lower educational and income levels were more likely to co-reside with grandchildren, with this association persisting across the period considered. A well-established body of work shows that around the globe grandparents are sig- nificant providers of grandchild care (Grundy et  al., 2012; Knodel & Nguyen, 2014; Ko & Hank, 2013; Ku et al., 2013); however, cross-national and intra-national comparisons are complicated by different definitions (Hank et al., 2018) as well as different measure - ment scales of frequency (from regular to occasional or only for special occasions) and intensity (from a few hours per year to several times per day) (Glaser, 2013; Glaser et al., 2013; Herlofson & Hagestad, 2012). In Europe, in 2004/2005, 58% of grandmothers and 49% of grandfathers looked after at least one grandchild under the age of 16 (Hank & Buber, 2009), with 12% providing care almost daily or at least 15  h a week (Di Gessa et al., 2016a). However, as discussed by Pasqualini et  al. (2021), few studies examine changes in grandparental care over time. Guerts et  al. (2015) using data from the Longitudinal Study of Amsterdam found an increase in grandparental childcare from 23% in 1992 to 41% in 2006, a rise they attribute to greater maternal labour force participation (Geurts et  al., 2015). As for grandparent-grandchild co-residence, Pasqualini et  al. (2021) has shown broad stability from 1998 to 2016 in grandparent–grandchild transfers in Italy in both childcare and frequency of contact, with few changes in the associations between demographic and socio-economic characteristics and grandparent–grandchild transfers despite significant changes in the characteristics of Italian grandparents (such as rising ages and levels of divorce) (Pasqualini et al., 2021). Another important issue likely to be modifying intergenerational contact is greater availability and use of digital communication technologies (Danielsbacka et  al., 2022). Arpino et al. (2022) in this thematic issue compared digital contact between grandpar- ents and grandchildren with traditional forms of contact (i.e. face-to-face and by tel- ephone) (Arpino et  al., 2022). Their findings showed how grandparents belonging to younger cohorts, those with higher education, those living in urban areas and those in better health were more likely to maintain digital contact with their grandchildren. Mainly, digital contact tends to compensate for a lack of (frequent) face-to-face contact, and to combine with telephone contact to overcome the problem of geographical dis- tance between generations. Adult children’s labour force participation and division of unpaid housework Numerous studies have investigated the impact of grandparent availability on a wide range of issues, including younger generations’ labour force participation and fertility behaviour. For instance, research shows that the provision of regular grandchild care may facilitate labour force participation among the middle generation (and daughters/ mothers in particular) (Aassve et al., 2012a; Arpino et al., 2014) particularly where little formal childcare is available (Bordone et al., 2016; Di Gessa et al., 2016a). Help to parents (to give them a break, help them go to work, or go out) is the most often reported reason for grandchild care provision (Di Gessa et al., 2020), with more frequent grandchild care being reported in families where parents are in low-paid or insecure jobs or had fewer economic resources (Airey et al., 2020; Arpino et al., 2014). Glaser  et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 5 of 9 At the same time, it is argued that grandparental childcare is associated with entry into parenthood among the middle generation (Aassve et al., 2012b; Pink, 2018; Rutigli- ano, 2020; Thomese & Liefbroer, 2013), with evidence suggesting that grandparents even adapt their retirement preferences (Hochman & Lewin-Epstein, 2013) as well as its tim- ing (Lumsdaine & Vermeer, 2015; Van Bavel & De Winter, 2013) to fit in with their adult children’s fertility behaviour. However, as noted by Rutigliano and Lozano (2022) in this thematic issue, much less is known about the association between grandparental support and fertility intentions rather than behaviour, and the findings on this latter issue are mixed (Rutigliano & Lozano, 2022). On the one hand, recent work in Germany does not show an association between older parents’ transfers to adult children and fertility inten- tions regarding a first or second child (Tanskanen & Danielsbacka, 2021). On the other hand, a positive association between grandparental care and fertility intentions is appar- ent in Norway and France (Tanskanen & Rotkirch, 2014). Rutigliano and Lozano (2022) find that the receipt of grandparental support has a positive and significant impact on women’s but not men’s fertility intentions in Spain, a Southern European country like Italy. This is especially the case among more highly educated Spanish women, that is those who are more likely to experience greater work–family conflict and who, in the context of societies with little formal childcare provision, are more likely to rely on the extended family to support their full-time labour market participation. In this thematic issue Albertini and Tosi (2022) explore another aspect of adult chil- dren’s lives in which grandparent availability may play a role: the (gendered) division of unpaid housework (Albertini & Tosi, 2022). In several European societies, it has been observed that in recent years—perhaps because of changing social roles and increased women’s participation in paid labour (Grunow & Evertsson, 2019)—men’s participa- tion in the provision of childcare has increased. This is more so among highly educated couples. At the same time, no matching trend has been observed in the gendered divi- sion of household chores, and particularly of routine tasks, which remain an important dimension of gender inequality within families and society (Bianchi et  al., 2012; Carri- ero & Todesco, 2018). Albertini and Tosi (2022) ask if, as with formal childcare services, the availability of grandparents and the support they provide is associated with a more gender-equal division of housework among Italian heterosexual couples with minor chil- dren. Their findings show no clear association between face-to-face contacts between grandparents and adult children and the symmetry of the division of household labour. At the same time, however, they show that three-generation households with minor grandchildren are characterised by a more gender-equal division of household tasks than that observed in two-generation households with minor children. In particular, the positive role of living with grandparents is higher than that of hiring a babysitter and equivalent to that of hiring a professional housekeeper. Grandparent labour force participation, health, and well‑being Becoming a grandparent and looking after grandchildren may also influence grand - parents’ labour market participation, health, and well-being (Arpino et  al., 2014; Bordone & Arpino, 2022; Chen & Liu, 2012; Di Gessa et al., 2016a, 2016c; Tsai et al., 2013). A growing body of literature shows an association between becoming a grand- parent/transitioning to grandparenthood and leaving work and/or working fewer Glaser et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 6 of 9 hours (Backhaus & Barslund, 2021; Lumsdaine & Vermeer, 2015; Rupert & Zanella, 2018; Van Bavel & De Winter, 2013; Zanasi et  al., 2020). A key gap in the literature is the question of how life-course circumstances and events influence labour market participation and grandparental childcare in later life. Zanasi and colleagues (2020) found that in England first-time grandmothers with continuous work careers or short employment interruptions—i.e. those with lower opportunity costs in withdrawing from paid work—were more likely to leave employment (Zanasi et  al., 2020). In this thematic issue, Zanasi and colleagues (2022) also show that among Italian grand- mothers, those who have ever worked are more likely to provide grandchild care in comparison to those with no labour market attachment, especially when adult chil- dren are in paid employment (Zanasi et  al., 2022). This is in direct contrast to those who would argue that older mothers who prioritise family obligations over paid work roles are more likely to assume family responsibilities in later life. In fact, older moth- ers who have been in paid employment throughout their lives are more likely to pro- vide the necessary support to permit their adult children (predominately daughters) to engage in paid work thus maintaining a critical link to the labour market (Zanasi et  al., 2022). One could hypothesise, therefore, that grandmothers’ desire to trans- mit the role of “working mother” and the empathy towards the common condi- tion of mother and daughter largely offsets other potential social and psychological mechanisms. The link between grandparental relations and health has been extensively investigated across different societal contexts (ranging from Chile to the U.S., Europe, and China) (Arpino & Bordone, 2014; Chen & Liu, 2012; Di Gessa et al., 2016b, 2016c; Grundy et al., 2012; Tsai et al., 2013). Evidence on the impact of being a grandparent and grandparen- tal care on health and well-being continues to be mixed. On the one hand, detrimental health effects are found particularly among grandparents who co-reside with grandchil - dren, whereas less intensive grandchild care seems to have either beneficial or no major widespread health effects after socio-economic and demographic characteristics along with prior health status are taken into account. The health effects of grandchild care seem to depend on several factors including the frequency and nature of interactions, the regional/cultural context, the health measures considered, and the type of analytical approaches used. For example, recent work examining the rejuvenating effect of grand - child care (how old one feels is strongly associated with indicators of well-being) has found that grandchild care did not make grandparents feel any younger than their actual age (Bordone & Arpino, 2022). The authors were able to investigate this issue using lon - gitudinal panel data methods and attributed this non-finding to selection effects: that is, grandparents in good health and feeling young may be more likely to look after grand- children. Yang et al. (2022) in this thematic issue further advances our understanding of the link between grandparental childcare and well-being through their investigation of how this relationship may be moderated by contextual effects—in this case, a country’s GDP (gross domestic product). The findings suggest that grandparents providing more intensive grandchild care report fewer depressive symptoms to a greater extent in lower income European countries in comparison to their counterparts in higher income Euro- pean countries (Yang et al., 2022). Such results suggest an important role for contextual factors in modifying the beneficial impact of grandchild care on mental health. Glaser  et al. Genus (2022) 78:31 Page 7 of 9 Conclusion The contributions to this thematic issue demonstrate the importance of (a) gathering greater detail on specific societal contexts to better understand multigenerational family functioning and the changing social role of grandparents; (b) considering changes over time in grandparental characteristics and transfers; and (c) the complexity of factors which shape the effects of grandparents’ availability and the behaviour and well-being of each of the three generations involved. Naturally, the scope to provide comprehensive answers to any of these questions is limited, even in this thematic issue that the Edi- tors of Genus have generously allocated. We sincerely hope that the articles collected here will stimulate further research (in Italy and in Europe as well as beyond), which will eventually allow us to get closer to filling at least some of the critical gaps in our knowl - edge about grandparents—and to develop new questions for future research. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the participants of the network Grandparenting in Europe and the Free University of Bozen for the support of the network. Author contributions All authors contributed to the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Funding No funding has to be acknowledged. Availability of data and materials None. Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate Accepted. Consent for publication Accepted. 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