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Backed by Research
A study, published in Psychology and Aging, used data from nearly 10,000 adults aged 50 and older in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a long-running study that tracks the health and well-being of older adults in England. Researchers compared grandparents who helped care for their grandchildren—but were not primary caregivers and did not live with them—with similar grandparents who did not provide childcare. A smaller group of about 1,700 participants was followed over time to examine changes in cognitive function.
At the beginning of the study, both caregiving grandmothers and grandfathers scored higher on cognitive measures than non-caregivers. Cognitive performance was assessed using verbal fluency—naming as many animals as possible in one minute—and episodic memory—immediate and delayed recall of a word list.
