Skip to main content

Predictors of Grandparental Investment

  • Living reference work entry
  • Latest version View entry history
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Grandparental care; Grandparental involvement; Grandparental solicitude

Definition

Grandparental investment can be basically defined as any contribution directed toward grandchildren by grandparents. Grandparental investment can include emotional support, physical care, and financial aid, and may also be indirect (e.g., through supporting the grandchildren’s parents). Typically, there are costs associated with grandparental investment (e.g., time or money), which are dependent on the nature of the investment. From an evolutionary perspective, grandparents are predicted to gain indirect fitness (i.e., ensuring the proliferation of their genes) from grandparental investment, either through increasing the number of grandchildren by investing in their adult children to increase fertility or by increasing the well-being and survival of their grandchildren.

Introduction

Grandparental investment is determined by the length of time grandparents are simultaneously alive with their...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Chapman, S. N., Lahdenperä, M., Pettay, J. E., & Lummaa, V. (2017). Changes in length of grandparenthood in Finland 1790–1959. Finnish Yearbook of Population Research, 52, 3–13. https://doi.org/10.23979/fypr.65346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, S. N., Pettay, J. E., Lummaa, V., & Lahdenperä, M. (2018). Limited support for the X-linked grandmother hypothesis in pre-industrial Finland. Biology Letters, 14(20170651). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0651.

  • Chrastil, E. R., Getz, W. M., Euler, H. A., & Starks, P. T. (2006). Paternity uncertainty overrides sex chromosome selection for preferential grandparenting. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 206–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coall, D. A., & Hertwig, R. (2010). Grandparental investment: Past, present, and future. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(1), 1–59. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X09991105.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coall, D. A., Hilbrand, S., & Hertwig, R. (2014). Predictors of grandparental investment decisions in contemporary Europe: Biological relatedness and beyond. PLoS One, 9, e84082.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M., & Perry, G. (2017). Matrilateral bias in human grandmothering. Frontiers in Sociology, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2017.00011.

  • Euler, H. A. (2011). Grandparents and extended kin. In C. A. Salmon & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of evolutionary family psychology (pp. 181–210). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, M., Sear, R., Beise, J., Ragsdale, G., Voland, E., & Knapp, L. A. (2010). Grandma plays favourites: X-chromosome relatedness and sex-specific childhood mortality. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 277, 567–573.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, P. B., & Brogdon, E. (2017). Do step-and biological grandparents show differences in investment and emotional closeness with their grandchildren? Evolutionary Psychology, 15, 1474704917694367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behaviour (I and II). Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7, 1–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pashos, A. (2017). Asymmetric caregiving by grandparents, aunts, and uncles and the theories of kin selection and paternity certainty. Cross-Cultural Research, 51(3), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397117697671.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pashos, A., Schwarz, S., & Björklund, D. F. (2016). Kin investment by step-grandparents: More than expected. Evolutionary Psychology, 14, 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, C. J., Hurt, S., & Mason, C. D. (1998). Families of the lesbian baby boom: Children’s contact with grandparents and other adults. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 68, 390–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sear, R., & Coall, D. (2011). How much does family matter? Cooperative breeding and the demographic transition. Population and Development Review, 37(Supplement), 81–112. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2011.00379.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sear, R., & Mace, R. (2008). Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.10.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanskanen, A. O., & Danielsbacka, M. (2017). Multigenerational effects on children’s cognitive and socioemotional outcomes: A within-child investigation. Child Development, 88. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12968.

  • Tanskanen, & Danielsbacka. (2018). Intergenerational family relations: An evolutionary social science approach. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tanskanen, A. O., Rotkirch, A., & Danielsbacka, M. (2011). Do grandparents favor granddaughters? Biased grandparental investment in the UK. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32, 407–415.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antti O. Tanskanen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Chapman, S.N., Tanskanen, A.O., Danielsbacka, M. (2018). Predictors of Grandparental Investment. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2348-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2348-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Predictors of Grandparental Investment
    Published:
    02 July 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2348-2

  2. Original

    Grandparental Investment
    Published:
    15 April 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2348-1