The Role of Grandparenting in Enhancing Longevity: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

The influence of grandparenting on the longevity of older adults remains insufficiently studied, especially in non-Western settings. This research examined how different aspects of grandparenting, including grandparenthood and the provision, duration, and intensity of grandchild caregiving, impact all-cause mortality risk among older adults in China. Using data from the 2011–2020 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, including 14,573 respondents aged 45 to 80 (52,940 observations), we examined the associations between grandparenting and mortality, investigated how factors like gender, marital status, rural-urban residence, and smoking behavior may moderate these relationships, and explored the underlying mechanisms driving these effects. To address health-selection bias, we employed entropy balancing reweighting. Discrete-time complementary log-log models were used to link predictors at one wave to mortality in the subsequent wave. Results revealed a notable distinction: grandparenthood alone had no significant effect on mortality, whereas providing grandchild care was associated with a substantial survival benefit. This benefit was most pronounced among grandparents engaged in long-term care (≥ 2 waves) and low-intensity care (1–99 hours/year). The survival advantage was stronger among urban and widowed grandparents but less evident among former smokers and notably reversed for separated or divorced grandparents. Pathway analyses indicated that these benefits were partly mediated by improved cognitive function (explaining 5.69%), functional capacity (8.52%), and social participation (8.16%). This study highlights that grandchild caregiving is a powerful but conditional protective factor for older adults in China, emphasizing the role of family-based strategies rooted in filial piety in promoting healthy aging.