DO GRANDCHILDREN INFLUENCE RETIREMENT? THE PRESENCE OF GRANDCHILDREN AND THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCE BETWEEN GRANDPARENTS AND GRANDCHILDREN AT RETIREMENT TRANSITION

With the increase of life expectancy and healthier aging, multigenerational ties have become increasingly important in individuals’ lives in Western societies. In addition, increasing longevity suggest that most parents will become grandparents. The decrease in childbearing has resulted that grandparents tend to have fewer grandchildren competing for their attention and therefore can play a larger role in the life of each one of them. Grandparenthood has become an increasingly important social role for older individuals. During the last decades, retirement transition has increasingly become a life event that many individuals in Western societies are able to decide upon. However the decision is constrained by many individual and structural factors. This study focus is on grandchildren as an potential influential factor in grandparents’ retirement timing. The aim is to use Swedish register data to investigate whether the existence of young grandchildren has any impact on grandparents’ retirement timing. Part of the aim is also to investigate whether the geographical distance between grandparents and grandchildren can be significantly linked to retirement transitions. The study’s focus contributes to a deeper understanding of how retirement behaviors are linked to extended family relations in contemporary Sweden.