An increasing reliance on remote work and fewer 24/7 stores are well-known effects of the coronavirus pandemic. However, there is another lesser-known (but still significant) consequence: a decline in U.S. grandparents caring for grandchildren post-COVID, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Reasons for Changing Family Dynamics Post COVID-19 Pandemic
There is no single cause for why U.S.-based grandparents started taking care of children during and after the pandemic. It was instead a combination of several factors.
According to the Associated Press, those reasons include:
- Lockdowns. Mandatory lockdowns meant limited travel opportunities in 2020 and 2021. These lockdowns made it harder for grandparents that lived away from their grandkids to visit in person and provide kinship care.
- Healthcare risks. Older adults are at higher risk of serious complications from the coronavirus than other age groups, including worsening existing health conditions or even death. The greater potential for serious complications meant older people had incentive to reduce the number of visits to family members.
- Decline in opioid deaths and incarceration. Around the time of the pandemic, opioid deaths in the United States stabilized then declined. Further, there was a decline in the number of women being incarcerated. Some of the leading reasons for grandparents raising grandchildren (“grandfamilies”) in the United States are absent parents due substance abuse, mental health issues, and/or incarceration. As such, a decline in both opioid deaths and maternal incarceration directly lead to a decline in grandparents providing primary care of grandchildren.
- Stronger economy. Previous generations often saw older people living with adult children for financial reasons. In recent times, however, a stronger economy means grandparents are less likely to live with adult children and their grandkids. This living arrangement means that adults relied less on their own parents for childcare, opting instead for paid daycare services.
While lockdowns are no longer in place, the general childcare trends and habits established during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic appear to remain for the time being.
What are the Implications for Changing Family Structures?
After the start of coronavirus lockdowns in 2020, certain short-term consequences of shifting family dynamics are becoming clear:
- Patterns of early childhood education. School closures and fears over the coronavirus lead to lower preschool enrollment rates compared to pre-pandemic levels. It’s still too early to see if these enrollment levels will bounce back, meaning there is a gap in early childhood education providers. Daycare or stay-at-home parents may step up to fill this void, as these two groups are filling some of the gap left by grandparents providing kinship care to young children.
- Mental health issues. U.S.-based grandparents aren’t the only ones who stopped caregiving for their grandkids after the pandemic started. Grandparents from England provided fewer kinship care services post-COVID as well—leading to some worrying mental health outcomes. One study of English grandparents, for example, found that grandparents who no longer provided care for their grandchildren were more likely to experience depressive symptoms.
It is still too early to know the long-term implications of fewer U.S. grandparents taking care of grandchildren post-COVID. What is important to remember, though, is that these changes all do not necessarily stem from negative events, such as stronger economies and fewer opioid-related deaths.