"A significant increase in life expectancy over the past decades has changed intergenerational relationships and the role of older adults in aging families. Increasingly, older adults have been involved in caring for grandchildren (i.e., grandparenting), a role emerging in later life. In light of the role strain/enhancement theories, this dissertation investigates how grandparenting is related to the physical and mental health of older adults, and how this association varies by sociocultural context. I adopt a three-essay format to address this research question. My first study draws from the Health and Retirement Study (1988-2014) to examine the linkage between grandparenting and mortality risk, and its racial/ethnic variation in the U.S. The results from the event history models reveal different racial/ethnic patterns in the effects of grandparenting on mortality risk. The mortality advantage of providing grandparenting is robust for white grandparents, whereas the mortality disadvantage of grandparenting is mainly found among black grandparents. In the second study, I investigate how grandparenting affects depressive symptoms among older women in South Korea, using the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (2008-2012). The results from growth curve models indicate that caregiving grandmothers in multigenerational households experience a decline in depressive symptoms over time. The mental health gap between the multigenerational household grandparenting and non-caregiving groups decreases with age and reverses after age reaches the mid-60s. Drawing from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011-2015), the third study uses growth curve models to assess how grandparenting influences depressive symptoms in China. The analyses show that the level of depressive symptoms increases over time among older adults who reside in rural regions and provide multigenerational household grandparenting. The provision of full-time noncoresident grandparenting has an initially protective effect on the depressive symptoms among rural older adults. However, socioeconomic status partially accounts for the association between grandparenting and depressive symptoms. Taken together, the findings of this dissertation confirm that grandparenting plays a significant role in physical and mental health in later life. The effects of grandparenting on health and the underlying mechanisms which explain these relationships vary by sociocultural context. My dissertation advances our knowledge about intergenerational relationships by examining racial/ethnic and social/cultural differences in the consequence of grandparenting for health and well-being in later life."--Pages ii-iii.
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