Unmasking Gender Dynamics in Grandparenting: Caregiving Gender-Role Attitudes and Children’s Social Adjustment Across Grandparent–Grandchild Gender Dyads

Abstract The increasing worldwide prevalence and intensity of grandparenting has attracted attention to its effect on children’s development. The current study investigates the associations between grandparents’ caregiving gender-role attitudes, grandparent involvement, and children’s social adjustment across grandparent–grandchild gender dyads in mainland China. Using a school-based, multistage cluster random sampling, data were collected from a sample of 1,368 grandparents (70.8% women) aged 45–‍81 years old ( M = 64.15; SD = 6.09) through structured questionnaires. Employing structural equation modeling with multigroup analysis, the findings revealed that grandparents’ traditional caregiving gender-role attitudes negatively impacted children’s prosocial behaviors and contributed to behavioral problems. Traditional gender-role attitudes toward caregiving may decrease grandparents’ general involvement in grandchildren’s multidimensional care, which in turn negatively affects their prosocial behaviors. It is also important to note that grandmothers’ involvement may pose a potential risk of triggering their grandsons’ behavioral problems. This study highlights the gendered patterns of grandparenting, which expands current knowledge and provides practical implications for policymakers and social workers to promote egalitarian gender-role attitudes in caregiving and enhance children’s development.