Childcare Arrangements and Grandparenting in Chinese Families

Tuesday 31 January 2023
14:00-15:00 
Auditorium, McClay Library

Speaker:
Jiatong LING (School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work)

Jiatong is a PhD student in Social Work. Her research focuses on grandparenting in Chinese families, which explores childcare arrangements with grandparents’ involvement and intergenerational interactions between grandparents and parents in these childcare arrangements.

Outline:
Grandparents’ involvement in childcare is a worldwide phenomenon. It is common in the families in China as well. There are several Chinese phrases to describe grandparenting or grandparent childcare such as gedai fuyang (隔代抚养 gédài fǔyǎng), gedai fuyu (隔代抚育 gédài fǔyù), gedai jiaoyang (隔代教养 gédài jiàoyǎng) and so forth. The nation is facing continuing low fertility rate and increasing ageing population although the population policy has been shifted to the three-child policy. Childcare seems a central issue in fertility decision-making that underlines the importance to explore grandparent childcare for early year children. This talk aims to share some new insights into grandparenting by exploring childcare arrangements and intergenerational interactions through grandparents’ and parents’ perceptions.

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