Sense of purpose and meaning in life during the transition to grandparenthood

Abstract

The grandparent role has been often described as one of the most fulfilling aspects of older age. Yet, no longitudinal studies investigated the effect of the transition to grandparenthood on older adults’ sense of purpose and meaning in life. In this pre-registered study, we investigated the effect of becoming a first-time grandparent and a first-time caregiving grandparent on changes in sense of purpose and meaning in life. We used data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), covering up to 12 years around the transition ( N HRS = 843, N ELSA = 587). To disentangle potential grandparenthood effects from age-related developmental changes, we used propensity score matching to compare grandparents to matched non-grandparents. Using latent change score models, we only found increases in sense of purpose in the years leading up to the transition, but not afterwards. No consistent findings of mean-level changes were observed in the control groups. Thus, our findings suggest that becoming a (caregiving) grandparent does not necessarily contribute to higher meaning and sense of purpose in life than before or compared to non-grandparents.