ABSTRACT
Grandparental care is prevalent around the world. It can affect not only the psychosocial well-being of individual family members involved but also family well-being as a whole. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizes the effects of grandparental care on grandchildren’s and grandparents’ mental health and family functioning and compares these effects between multigenerational and skipped-generation families. A total of 15 relevant studies were identified from seven databases. The overall effect size was estimated using a pooled standardized mean difference. Moderator analyses were performed to explain the variability in these effects. The results showed that, compared with skipped-generation households, grandparental care in multigenerational households was associated with more positive outcomes for grandchildren’s mental health (SMD = 0.66, 95% CI [−0.14, 1.45]), grandparents’ mental health (SMD = 0.27, 95% CI [0.10, 0.44]) and family functioning (SMD = 0.18, 95% CI [0.04, 0.32]). These results did not vary significantly by study design, study country, grandparent age or gender or outcome rater. The findings show more promising effects of grandparental care on family members’ mental health outcomes as well as family functioning in multigenerational families. Social services and policies should pay particular attention to protecting and enhancing the well-being of grandchildren, grandparents and families in skipped-generation families for reasons such as parental migration.