Do Storks Bring Gigabytes to Grandpa? The Effect of Becoming a Grandparent on Internet Use

Bruno Arpino , Università Di Padova
Mirkka Danielsbacka, University of Turku
Antti Tanskanen, University of Turku

The transition to grandparenthood has far-reaching consequences for older adults, impacting retirement timing, health, and well-being. This study explores its effect on Internet use. Our analyses are based on data from waves 5-9 of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and employ fixed-effects logistic regression models with lagged independent variables. We build two working samples: Sample 1 estimates the probability of commencing Internet use among those who were not Internet users at their initial appearance in the dataset, while Sample 2 focuses on the likelihood of ceasing Internet use and includes only individuals who were using the Internet at their first observation. We find that becoming a grandparent increases the likelihood of initiating Internet use by approximately 4 percentage points. This effect is stronger among younger individuals, those with higher education, better economic conditions, and in digitally advanced countries. Instead, we found no significant impact of having the first grandchild on stopping using the Internet. These findings emphasize the role of intergenerational relationships, particularly the birth of a grandchild, in bridging the digital divide among older adults.

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 Presented in Session 16. Family and Households