Intergenerational Relationships in Old Age - How Does Caring for (Grand)children Affect Grandparents' Health?
Dissertation Project
Intergenerational Relationships in Old Age – How Does Caring for (Grand)children Affect Grandparents’ Health?
In his work, Merih Ates focuses on grandparents who care for their grandchildren. Grandchildren are considered a potential resource for their grandparents’ well-being. Caring for them can, on the one hand, have a stimulating and meaningful effect; on the other hand, it can be marked by ambivalence and cause or contribute to stress. This dissertation project investigates whether caring for grandchildren has an impact on grandparents’ health and, if so, under what conditions negative health consequences can be avoided and positive effects achieved. To this end, longitudinal studies are being conducted. In addition to biological grandparent-grandchild relationships, social intergenerational relationships will be examined in a second phase. This concerns grandparent mentors who agree to provide care services for other people’s children. Civil society initiatives—grandparent services—help facilitate connections between families with children and grandparent mentors. Using a qualitative design, the study will also examine whether and how this form of civil society engagement is experienced as beneficial to health.
Research Interests
- Intergenerational relationships
- Social inequality and health
- Social policy and civic engagement in old age
- Life course research
- Methods of empirical social research
Education
- 2014 Studied Sociology and Empirical Social Research at the University of Cologne, Minor: Social Policy, M.Sc.
- 2014 Study abroad semester at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada
- 2011 Studied Social Sciences at the University of Cologne, Minor: Economic and Social Psychology, B.Sc.
Professional Career
- Since 2015: Research Assistant at the Graduate College “NRW Fortschrittskolleg GROW – Gerontological Research On Well-being” at the University of Cologne
- 06/2013 – 09/2013: Student assistant at the Kuratorium Deutsche Altershilfe (KDA)
- 10/2011 – 12/2012: Student assistant at the Institute for Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne (Chair of Prof. Dr. Michael Wagner)
- May 2011 – September 2011: Internship in empirical opinion and election research at infratest dimap
Teaching
- Summer Semester 2015: Empirical Methods for Special Education Teachers, University of Cologne
- Oct 2009 – Feb 2013: Student assistant and tutor at the Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of Cologne (Methods of Empirical Social Research, Introduction to Sociology: Microsociology)