Family dynamics among caregivers tend to be complicated. They can become even more complex when grandparents take on co-parenting roles.
Weiman Xu, postdoctoral fellow at the Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics (MAP Academy), recently explored the association between intergenerational co-parenting and children’s social-emotional development. Funded by a graduate scholars grant from the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, Xu investigated the role grandparents play in raising children and how co-parenting between grandparents and parents relate to children’s well-being.
Xu’s data revealed that overall, the children were socially competent and exhibited few behavioral concerns, suggesting healthy social-emotional development. Data also suggest parent-grandparent co-parenting, as well as the quality of the parent-grandparent relationship, are linked to higher levels of social skills in children.
Through late 2024 and into 2025, Xu spent several weeks in China’s Shandong Province distributing surveys to more than 700 families with children ages 3-6 — the age range for China’s three-year kindergarten program — and one or more grandparents involved in raising the children.
Kindergartners each received a packet of three questionnaires — one for each parent and one for a grandparent, who shared their caregiving views and child-rearing responsibilities in the family. The children returned the questionnaires once they were completed.
“Grandparents are really playing a more and more important role in child development,” she said.
One of the findings that most surprised Xu was differing perceptions of co-parenting among parents and grandparents. For example, when grandparents perceived better intergenerational co-parenting with the parents, children showed lower levels of problem behaviors. However, this was not true for parents’ perceptions.
“This may be due to grandparents perceiving more struggles in caregiving coordination, which are over misalignment in child-rearing and are less salient or less acknowledged by parents,” Xu said.
When grandparents feel respected and influential in child-rearing decisions, she said, their influence on child development is positive. However, even highly motivated and emotionally invested grandparents may have limited influence if the parent does not actively support or value that relationship, Xu said.
“Even though the grandparents are highly involved in child-rearing and they want to have some influence in children’s development, the parents can block this,” she said. “They can serve as the gatekeeper, because they are still the primary caregivers of children.”
Xu’s data suggest parents and grandparents should form a collaborative and respectful atmosphere in child-rearing activities. And because grandparents’ perceptions are important, she said, they should feel they are respected, engaged and influential in child-rearing.
“Grandparents may be more motivated to engage in coordinated and collaborative interactions with parents,” Xu said. “Such shared involvement can promote more consistent discipline and caregiving strategies, and then reduce confusion and behavioral dysregulation in children.”
Learn more about the project in the CYFS Research Network.