Abstract
In contemporary Western societies, accidents and injuries are the most common cause of death in early childhood. This makes them a major social and health policy issue and an important child well-being indicator. Here we compared the risk of home injuries between children who co-reside in three-generational households with grandparents and children who do not co-reside with grandparents. Moreover, we investigate whether grandparental presence is associated with decreased injuries in different risk situations, measured by family- and child-related factors. Using the British Millennium Cohort Study (n = 12,319 children between the ages of 9 months and 3 years), we found that children who co-reside with grandparents had a lower probability of home injuries than children who do not co-reside with grandparents. In addition, grandparental co-residence was associated with a decreased risk of injuries more strongly in boys than girls. The results are discussed with reference to older adults’ beneficial role of supporting their offspring.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albertini, M., Kohli, M., & Vogel, C. (2007). Intergenerational transfers of time and money in European families: common patterns – different regimes? Journal of European Social Policy, 17, 319–334.
Aquilino, W. S. (1996). The lifecourse of children born to unmarried mothers: childhood living arrangements and young adult outcomes. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58, 293–310.
Bruce, B. S., Lake, J. P., Eden, V. A., & Denney, J. C. (2004). Children at risk of injury. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 19, 121–127.
Coall, D. A., & Hertwig, R. (2010). Grandparental investment: Past, present, and future. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 1–59.
Coall, D. A., & Hertwig, R. (2011). Grandparental investment: a relic of the past or a resource for the future? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 93–98.
DeLeire, T., & Kalil, A. (2002). Good things come in 3 s: Mutigenerational coresidence and adolescent adjustment. Demography, 39, 393–413.
Dunifon, R. (2013). The influence of grandparents in the lives of children and adolescents. Child Development Perspectives, 7, 55–60.
Dunifon, R., & Kowaleski-Jones, L. (2007). The influence of grandparents in single-mother families. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 465–481.
Dunifon, R., Ziol-Guest, K. M., & Kopko, K. (2014). Grandparent coresidence and family well-being: implications for research and policy. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 125, 110–126.
Hank, K., & Buber, I. (2009). Grandparents caring for their grandchildren: findings from the 2004 survey of health, ageing, and retirement in Europe. Journal of Family Issues, 30, 53–73.
Hansen, K. (Ed.). (2010). Millennium Cohort Study first, second, third and fourth surveys: A guide to the datasets (5th ed.). London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
Hong, J., Lee, B., Ha, E. H., & Park, H. (2009). Parental socioeconomic status and unintentional injury deaths in early childhood: Consideration of injury mechanisms, age at death, and gender. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 42, 313–319.
Igel, C., & Szydlik, M. (2011). Grandchild care and welfare state arrangements in Europe. Journal of European Social Policy, 21, 210–224.
Kendrick, D., & Marsh, P. (2001). How useful are sociodemographic characteristics in identifying children at risk of unintentional injury? Public Health, 115, 103–107.
Kendrick, D., Mulvaney, C., Burton, P., & Watson, M. (2005). Relationships between child, family and neighborhood characteristics and childhood injury: a cohort study. Social Science and Medicine, 61, 1905–1915.
Kreidl, M., & Hubatkova, B. (2014). Does coresidence with grandparents reduce the negative association between sibship size and reading test scores? evidence from 40 countries. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 38, 1–17.
Lahdenperä, M., Lummaa, V., Helle, S., Tremblay, M., & Russell, A. F. (2004). Fitness benefits of prolonged post-reproductive lifespan in women. Nature, 428, 178–181.
Lussier, G., Deater-Deckard, K., Dunn, J., & Davies, L. (2002). Support across two generations: children’s closeness to grandparents following parental divorce and remarriage. Journal of Family Psychology, 16, 363–376.
Mare, R. D. (2011). A multigenerational view of inequality. Demography, 48, 1–23.
McLanahan, S., & Sandefur, G. (1994). Growing up with a single parent: What hurts, what helps? Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Mollborn, S., Fomby, P., & Dennis, J. (2011). Who matters for children’s early development? race/ethnicity and extended household structures in the United States. Child Indicators Research, 4, 389–411.
Mutchler, J. E., & Baker, L. A. (2009). The implications of grandparent coresidence for economic hardship among children in mother-only families. Journal of Family Issues, 30, 1576–1597.
Myhre, M. C., Thoresen, S., Grøgaard, J. B., & Dyb, G. (2012). Familial factors and child characteristics as predictors of injuries in toddlers: a prospective cohort study. BMJ Open, 2, e000740.
OECD. (2014). Family database. Paris: OECD.
Pearce, A., Li, L., Abbas, J., Ferguson, B., Graham, H., Law, C., & the Millennium Cohort Study Child Health Group. (2010). Does childcare influence socioeconomic inequalities in unintentional injury? findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 64, 161e166.
Pearce, A., Li, L., Abbas, J., Ferguson, B., Graham, H., & Law, C. (2012). Does the home environment influence inequalities in unintentional injury in early childhood? findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 66, 181–188.
Pilkauskas, N. V., & Martinson, M. L. (2014). Three-generation family households in early childhood: comparisons between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Demographic Research, 30, 1639–1652.
Reading, R., Jones, A., Haynes, R., Daras, K., & Emond, A. (2008). Individual factors explain neighbourhood variations in accidents to children under 5 years of age. Social Science and Medicine, 67, 915–927.
Ruggles, S. (2003). Multigenerational families in nineteenth-century America. Continuity and Change, 18, 139–165.
Sear, R., & Coall, D. A. (2011). How much does family matter? cooperative breeding and the demographic transition. Population and Development Review, 37, 81–112.
Sear, R., & Mace, R. (2008). Who keeps children alive? a review of the effects of kin on child survival. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29, 1–18.
Tanskanen, A. O., & Danielsbacka, M. (2012). Beneficial effects of grandparental involvement vary by lineage in the UK. Personality and Individual Differences, 53, 985–988.
Tanskanen, A. O., & Danielsbacka, M. (2016). Maternal grandfathers and child development in England. In A. Buchanan & A. Rotkirch (Eds.), Grandfathers: International perspectives. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tanskanen, A.O., Danielsbacka, M. & Rotkirch, A. (2015). More Injuries in Half Sibling than Full Sibling Households in the UK. Journal of Individual Differences 36, DOI: 10.1027/1614-0001/a000171.
Unicef. (2007). An overview of child well-being in rich countries: A comprehensive assessment of the lives and well-being of children and adolescents in the economically advanced nations. Florence: The United Nations Children’s Fund.
WHO. (2008). World report on child injury prevention. Geneva: The World Health Organization.
Acknowledgments
This study is part of the Generational Transmissions in Finland project funded by the Academy of Finland (grant no. 250620).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tanskanen, A.O., Danielsbacka, M. Association Between Grandparental Co-Residence and Early Childhood Injury in the UK. Child Ind Res 10, 825–837 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-016-9411-1
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-016-9411-1