Grandparents Who Care for Grandchildren Show Slower Cognitive Decline, Study Finds

Grandparents who care for their grandchildren may experience slower cognitive decline, according to a new study. The protective effect was particularly pronounced for grandmothers, who showed reduced deterioration in memory and language abilities.

A research team led by Flavia Ceresescu at Tilburg University in the Netherlands published findings on Friday analyzing data from approximately 10,000 participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) in the American Psychological Association journal *Psychology and Aging*.

The researchers tracked 2,887 grandparents (average age 67) who provided childcare and 7,395 who did not across three survey waves from 2016 to 2022.

Participants completed questionnaires and cognitive assessments. The questionnaires asked about grandchild care over the past year, including frequency and types of activities. Caregiving activities included playing together, helping with homework, school drop-offs and pick-ups, and preparing meals. Cognitive tests measured verbal fluency and memory through tasks such as naming animals for one minute and immediate and delayed recall of 10 words.

The analysis found that grandparents who cared for grandchildren scored higher on both memory and verbal fluency tests compared to those who did not. These results held after adjusting for variables including age, health status, education level, marital status, and number of children and grandchildren. The findings were independent of caregiving frequency or type of activity.

Grandmothers who provided care showed notably smaller cognitive decline. However, grandfathers showed no significant difference in cognitive decline regardless of whether they provided care.

"This suggests that the act of caring for grandchildren itself may be more important for cognitive function than how often grandparents provide care or what specific activities they do," Ceresescu said.

Previous research has reported that grandparents who more frequently engage in leisure activities with grandchildren or prepare meals show better cognitive function and slower decline. However, the impact of grandchild care on grandparents' cognitive function and gender differences had not been clearly established.

"Additional research is needed to replicate these findings, but if caring for grandchildren does benefit grandparents' cognitive function, it may stem from the overall experience of being involved in grandchild care rather than the frequency or type of caregiving," Ceresescu said.