Depression and Health among Grandmothers Co-Residing with Grandchildren in Two Cohorts of Women

Abstract

This paper examined depression and health of grandmothers who co-resided with grandchildren in 1997 in two cohorts of women, one aged 30–44 in 1967 (N = 2,080), and the other aged 14–24 in 1968 (N = 1,708). Co-resident grandmothers in both cohorts were more likely than other mothers to have higher levels of depression and about one-fifth were likely to exhibit levels high enough to place them “at risk” for clinical depression. Co-residency, however, was not found to be a good predictor of either level of depression or changes in the level of depression, but prior levels of depression were positively related to changes in the level of depression among mothers in general when controlling for current or previous co-residency. Health status was found to be a good predictor of depression when accounting for co-residency and work effort among other factors.