Understanding Intergenerational Co-Parenting Shifts: A Qualitative Inquiry into the Parenting Division of Working Mothers and Grandmothers in Urban China


Haiyan Zhou, University of Toronto； Shanghai University

Grandmothers childcare is common in East Asia and widespread in both urban and rural China. Despite considerable research devoted to the study of Chinese intergenerational co-parenting, none has focused systematically on the division and roles of bilateral grandmothers in co-parenting. Drawing on data from 46 married, child-rearing women (born 1950-1999), this paper contributes in-depth knowledge about collaboration and division in intergenerational co-parenting along the bilateral family lines (paternal and maternal grandmothers). Additionally, it explores variations in intergenerational co-parenting among women from different generations using a comparative perspective. Based on economic, political and fertility policy differences during their birth and upbringing, we categorized all interviewees into four generations: the Builder Generation (born1950-1964,10 participants); the Transitioner Generation (born1965-1979,11 participants); the Early-Reform Generation (born1980-1989,13 participants); and the Late-Reform Generation (born1990-1999,12 participants). We conduct this study based on the Mosaic Familism Theory. As a localized theory of Chinese families, the Mosaic Familism Theory employs an intersectional perspective of generations and gender, emphasizing the resilience and reshaping of intergenerational relations in post-reform China. It describes an emerging bilateral family mode featured by both traditional norms and modern practices focusing on individuals’ daily life logic, where parents and adult children are interdependent through financial assistance, emotional and care support to withstand the rising living costs, care demand and uncertainties in the era of marketization and globalization. The authors find different generational working mothers all experienced co-parenting with grandmothers for their underage children but with notable differences. Firstly, under varied socioeconomic structures and reproductive support systems, each generation developed era-specific parenting patterns. The builder generation devoted themselves to socialist construction and sacrificed their private family for the country. They trusted the public childcare and put children in daycare from early months—grandmothers childcare just for special occasions, like postpartum period and emergencies. The transitioner generation encountered market reform during their child-rearing period. They suffered the large-scale SOEs’ layoffs and were encouraged to return home. They emphasized mothers’ responsibilities with low expectations for intergenerational co-parenting, being full-time mothers for years through layoffs, unpaid leave and sick leave. In the post-reform era, childcare became marketized and privatized. The early-reform generation suffered serious parenting-work conflicts and relied on one grandmother for childcare. Conversely, the late-reform generation got bilateral grandmothers’ support in parenting owning lower fertility rates. Secondly, different generations experienced varying task divisions and roles in intergenerational co-parenting. In the builder generation, grandmothers were a supplement to mothers, providing brief care only during special occasions. In the transitioner generation, grandmothers served as assistants in housework. But in post-reform, collaboration and division became intricate and closely knit. In the early-reform generation, grandmothers became indispensable supporters in daily care and physical tasks, allowing mothers to focus on emotional, leisure and academic support within their limited family time. In the late-reform generation, mothers regarded grandmothers as obedient partners, with younger mothers designing parenting rules while grandmothers executed tasks involving every aspect of children’s lives. Thirdly, since China’s 1949 revolution, maternal grandmothers increasingly engage in intergenerational parenting, showing a trend of both maternal and paternal childcare coexisting. In the former two generations, mothers briefly collaborated with one grandmother based on parenting convenience and feasibility. Early-reform mothers preferred co-parenting with maternal grandmothers due to deeper emotional bonds and also to avoid conflicts with mothers-in-law. Late-reform mothers simultaneously benefited from multifaceted assistance, including care, time and financial support from the bilateral grandmothers. These findings suggest that each generation of women has developed distinct parenting patterns and intergenerational co-parenting methods within the diverse contexts of societal-economic and family policies. Furthermore, intergenerational relationships have become increasingly close, even giving rise to an emerging bilateral family model.

Non-presenting authors: Yingchun Ji, Shanghi University; Melissa Milkie, University of Toronto

This paper will be presented at the following session: