Using nationally representative data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018 and the fixed effects model, we examine the association between grandchild caregiving and rural grandparents’ participation in social activities in China. We further explore whether this association varies across non-migrant and migrant rural grandparents, as well as how this migration-related heterogeneity varies by gender. The results reveal that grandchild caregiving was positively associated with participation in at least one social activity among rural grandparents, primary driven by nonintensive caregiving. Migration-based heterogeneity indicates that this positive association was observed only among non-migrant rural grandparents. Meanwhile, among those who had already participated in at least one activity, grandchild caregiving was associated with a greater number of activity types and a higher frequency of participation among migrant rural grandparents. Further analysis by gender indicates that this migration-based heterogeneity pattern was observed only among grandfathers. Our findings offer important policy implications in the context of rapid population aging and urbanization in contemporary China as well as in other developing countries.
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