Caring for grandchildren helps boost brain health of grandparents, finds American study

There’s something really magical about the bond between grandparents and grandkids. It’s a kind of love that’s soft, patient, and full of little joys, cookies baked together, stories that go on forever, secret handshakes, or just sitting side by side doing nothing at all. Grandparents don’t always have to scold or teach; they just get to soak in the kids’ silliness and curiosity. And grandkids? They sense it. They feel safe, spoiled, and completely seen. It’s a love that’s unhurried, unconditional, and somehow bigger than words, a love that leaves little hearts full long after the hugs are over. This relationship nurtures itself in a special way and the findings of a new study is heartwarming. The study by the American Psychological Association, published in the journal Psychology and Aging, has found that looking after grandchildren can help older people from cognitive decline. “Many grandparents provide regular care for their grandchildren—care that supports families and society more broadly,” said lead researcher Flavia Chereches, MS, of Tilburg University in the Netherlands. “An open question, however, is whether caregiving for grandchildren may also benefit grandparents themselves. In this research, we wanted to see if providing grandchild care might benefit grandparents’ health, potentially slowing down cognitive decline.” A total of 2,887 grandparents (all older than age 50) answered survey questions and completed cognitive tests three times between 2016 and 2022. The questions included whether if they cared for a grandchild, how frequent it was and what kind of care it was, for example watching them overnight, caring when ill, playing in leisure activities, helping with homework, driving them to school, etc."Overall, the researchers found that grandparents who provided childcare scored higher on tests of both memory and verbal fluency compared with those who didn’t, even after adjusting for age, health and other factors. This held true regardless of the frequency and type of care the grandparents provided," the APA said. “What stood out most to us was that being a caregiving grandparent seemed to matter more for cognitive functioning than how often grandparents provided care or what exactly they did with their grandchildren,” said Chereches.