Profiles of Grandmothers Providing Child Care to Their Grandchildren in South Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe the profiles of South Korean grandmothers who provide child care to their grandchildren using a nationally representative sample of 3,329 grandmothers between 45 and 79 years of age. We assess grandmothers’ personal characteristics, financial situation and perception, and social participation associated with the likelihood of providing full-time and part-time child care, in comparison to providing no child care. We also examine grandmother characteristics related to providing longer hours of child care among 420 caregiving grandmothers. The results of a multinomial logistic regression and multiple regression show that the following characteristics are significantly associated with the provision of full-time or longer child care: age, intergenerational coresidence, the projection of future inheritance, grandmaternal and maternal employment, interaction with close networks, and religious participation. The findings suggest preliminary support for the three models of intergenerational transfer theory, short-term exchange, long-term exchange, and altruism, to explain grandmatemal child care in South Korea.