In countries like Italy, where the lack of public childcare services is particularly acute, families assistance typically flows down the generations and tend to turn to informal childcare provided by relatives. Thus, grandparents caring for grandchildren provide a critical service for both the children and the children’s parents. However, few studies have analyzed in depth the correlation between grandchild care and grandparents’ subjective well-being (SWB).

The aim of our presentation is to illustrate a working project funded by the Free University of Bolzano-Bozen at the end of 2015. The project, which can be defined as a pilot study, aims to investigate the consequences of childcare on grandparent’s lives in terms of SWB levels in South Tyrol, through a specific quantitative survey.

The main purpose of our contribution to the conference is to present the new survey to foster discussion and research on the effect of grandparenting on grandparents’ subjective measure of well-being. Specific focus will be reserve to questionnaire design and contents, involving the audience to the process of gathering data.