Studies About Grandparents and Grandchildren

Editor: Susan S. Meyers, Extension Family Sociologist
University of Minnesota Extension Service, Specialist Research Report, April 1990 (reviewed 2001)

University of Minnesota Children, Youth and Families Consortium. Permission is granted to create and distribute copies of this document for non-commercial purposes provided that the author and CYFC receive acknowledgement and this notice is included.

With increased longevity, it is apparent that the role of grandparents has been changing. The relationship with their grandchildren extends into young adulthood, sometimes with very positive results. In addition, the increase in the number of blended families has created a new position of step-grandparent, and a whole set of new expectations and roles incumbent upon the relationship. The purpose of this review is to summarize what has been gleaned through recent studies.

Before the increase in longevity among older adults, it was somewhat unusual for college age students to have a living grandparent. The image of grandparents being very old, is no longer the case. Grandparents can be from late 20's to over 100 years of age, and many remain in the work force through their 5th decade.

Some adults become grandparents at very early ages (late 20's to 30's)because of babies born to very young mothers. Since a high portion of these grandmothers became mothers themselves at very young ages, the likelihood is high for 4-5-6 generations living in these families. At the other end of the demographic picture, a number of older adults are in their 50's and 60's still waiting to become grandparents. They have children who are delaying parenthood until their late 30's or beyond, or may never have children. Since a number of those potential grandparents did not have their children until later in their lives, there may be a number of families who will never have 4 generations. Therefore, to look at grandparenthood, one needs to recognize the tremendous variety of situations occurring in the 1990's, and recognize that individual variation will be great.

Gunhild Hagestad (1) noted that "A growing number of families now have four or more generations....interact in a complex set of family roles and relationships....in a four-generation family, there are three tiers of parent-child connections; two sets of grandparent-grandchild relationships, and two generations of people who are both parents and children. Older members of such families typically have steady contact with siblings, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Most of these ties endure for decades....Grandparents and grandchildren will have relationships which last two or more decades."(p. 419)

There are different expectations of grandparents as well. Most will be through with active parenting prior to becoming grandparents, and therefore can focus more on providing the link between the generations and become stabilizing forces for adult children. When grandchildren are young, the grandparents are likely to be employed, but as grandchildren become young adults, the grandparents are more likely to be retired, to be widowed, and may have more time to devote to family linkages.

How do grandparents support their families? It appears that grandparents influence families through their emotional and attitudinal (though not necessarily physical) presence (2). The indirect influences on adult children (and therefore grandchildren) include: emotional and material assistance; child-rearing controls; and role models. The direct influences on grandchildren can be: cognitive and social stimulation; direct support; observational models for the child; and provision of opportunities for active participation.

Increasingly grandparents influence grandchildren through serving as caregivers or surrogate parents, as noted in Older Minnesotans. Nonemployed and/or minority grandparents are more likely to have a direct caregiving role with grandchildren. Although most grandparents do not want this responsibility, when necessity demands help, many support their children/grandchildren. Some researchers refer to the support in emergency as "important backstage figures," ready to assist as the situation requires attention. The involvement of grandparents in the lives of grandchildren is influenced most by the geographic proximity.

Grandparents are more involved with families when parents are divorced. When daughters divorce, grandparents are more likely to maintain or even enhance their contact with grandchildren. The reverse is true when sons divorce, mainly because of contemporary custody practices.

Related to divorce is the potential impact of step-grandparents and step-grandchildren. Although the relationships appear to be less strong than those of grandparents and grandchildren, many do desire more frequent contact between these new positions. More understanding of the dynamics of step-grandparents and step-grandchildren will result as more studies are completed on these roles and relationships.

Maternal grandparents often become involved as surrogate parents to the offspring of their teenage children. Many are called upon to provide all sorts of practical help, and some may resent the grandparent role when they are caring for their own young children at the same time.

Beneficial influences of grandparents on children's development appears to be optimal when there is neither too little nor too much contact. For instance, parental acceptance of children was higher and children tended to be more self-reliant in homes where mothers received child care aid from fathers or grandparents. In a longitudinal study, at-risk infants and children from households where mothers had the help of other adults (possibly grandparents) coped better and scored higher on cognitive tests than children whose mothers did not have adult support (3)(4). Other researchers noted that children in black households headed by a mother and grandmother did as well on assessments of psychological well-being and social adaptability as children from homes with a mother and father and considerably better than children from single-parent homes(5).

Several recent studies have looked at college age students and the patterns of relationships with their grandparents( 6). These students had from 8 (or more) grandparents (2%) to 4 biological grandparents (14%) to no living grandparents (8%). For students with living grandparents, 45% lived in the same town with at least one grandparent, and another 21% within 50 miles of a grandparent. These students tended to feel closer to their mother's parents than to their father's parents; and closer to grandmothers than to grandfathers. As expected, more grandmothers were alive than grandfathers. Half the students stated that it was very important to their parents for them to have a close relationship with their grandparents. The students perceived the roles of grandparents most strongly in the areas of loving, helping and comforting; role models; sharing family history; important in lives of young people; and with whom they have fun. They indicated that grandchildren should express love and provide help to grandparents; and that they are part of their grandparents' sense of the future. The students differed from those 10 years earlier because they did not expect grandparents to spoil grandchildren nor believed that grandparents prefer the company of their own age peers. Today's students are more inclined to expect grandparents to be liaisons between them and parents; to be somebody to turn to for personal advice; to understand them when nobody else does; to aid in their financial support; to act as a role model; or to be one whose occupation they might choose to imitate. It appears that these students expected their own role to complement their view of grandparenthood. These students noted that grandparents are frequently a stabilizing and buffering influence of family dissolution and reformation.

Step-grandparents and step-grandchildren

With increased divorce and remarriage, researchers are beginning to study the impact of these family changes on the step-grandparents.

One researcher (7) looked at grandmothers in families following the separation or divorce of their child. The emphasis was on grandmothers (because of their kinkeeping role in the family), and on grandchildren 12 years of age and younger (because of the likelihood that pre- adolescent children were especially vulnerable to the effects of their parents' separation or divorce). There was an increase in the frequency of face-to-face contacts, telephone calls, and letters between the grandmothers and grandchild following the disruption of an adult child's marriage. This was more true when the grandmother's child had custody and when grandmothers were married.

Grandmothers babysat, taught family history and tradition and provided advice on personal problems significantly more often after the breakdown of their child's marriage. Those who lived nearby may have observed the deterioration of the marriage and provided increased support prior to the breakup of the marriage. The grandmother of the non-custodial family increased visits with the grandchild more than before the breakdown of their child's marriage, even though most of the contact was with the custodial family. Perhaps most noteworthy is the amount of personal advice given to grandchildren by grandmothers. Perhaps the divorcing parents, emotionally distraught, are unable to talk to their children about the children's apprehension surrounding the breakdown of their parents' marriage. Grandmothers may provide this support to their grandchildren.

A study in North Dakota (8) attempted to identify the relationships between the college students and their grandparent or step-grandparent. These students had significantly more contact with grandparents than with step-grandparents. They noted that the contact with step-grandparents was less than desired (as contrasted with grandparents). Even when the step-grandparents were acquired in earlier life, the relationships were not rated as positively as those with grandparents. The authors concluded that the step-grandparent tie may be viewed as less important by the rest of the family and less emphasis is placed on developing the relationship. There are few clear guidelines on how to be a grandparent; the role of step-grandparent is even more ambiguous.

In the future, clear expectations about the roles of step-grandparents and step-grandchildren combined with greater clarity about grandparent- grandchild relations may enhance potential benefits from these relationships.

Cited References:

1. G.O. Hagestad, Able elderly in the family context: changes, chances, and challenges, The Gerontologist, Vol. 27, No. 4, 1987.
2. V. Bengtson, Diversity and symbolism in grandparental roles, in V.L. Bengtson and J.F. Robertson (Eds.), Grandparenthood, Beverly Hills, Sage, 1985.
3. T.E. Denham & C.W. Smith, The influence of grandparents on grandchildren: A review of the literature and resources, Family Relations, Vol. 38, No. 3, 1989.
4. E.E. Werner & R.S. Smith, Vulnerable but invincible: A longitudinal study of resilient children and youth, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982.
5. A.J. Cherlin & F.F. Furstenberg, The new American grandparent: A place in the family, a life apart, New York: Basic Books, 1986.
6. G. E. Kennedy, College students' expectations of grandparent and grandchild role behaviors, The Gerontologist, Vol. 30, No. 1, 1990.
7. J.W. Gladstone, Perceived changes in grandmother-grandchild relations following a child's separation or divorce, The Gerontologist, Vol. 28, No. 1, 1988.
8. G.F. Sanders & D.W. Trygstad, Stepgrandparents and grandparents: The view from young adults, Family Relations, Vol. 38, No. 1, 1989.

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