Living with Grandparents, Family Relations, and Grandchildren's School Achievement in Taiwan

Vivien W. Chen, Pennsylvania State University
Suet-ling Pong, Pennsylvania State University

Using data from Taiwan, this study examine the association between coresidence with grandparents and grandchildren’s cognitive development measured by the cognitive ability score. Our results suggest that the timing of coresidence with grandparent matters. Grandchildren benefit from having grandparents on a long term basis. Living with grandparents for a short time is no different from not living with a grandparent at all. Furthermore, losing a coresident grandparent is significantly associated with lower cognitive scores. These relationships between grandparents’ coresidence and grandchildren’s cognitive achievement are not mediated or confounded by parental structure, family relations, or parenting styles.