Which activities do great-grandparents and great-grandchildren share in family contexts? An analysis of a new intergenerational relationship

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to find out more about the role of great-grandparenthood. A group of participants with great-grandchildren (n = 78) was interviewed using a questionnaire containing questions that had been put through a previous pilot study, covering par-ticipants’ sociodemographics, the activities that participants shared with their great-grandchildren, and their view of the role of great-grandparent and their related degree of satisfaction. The data were recorded and ana-lyzed both with frequency tables and descriptive statistics and with the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test. The results showed several significant relationships between the shared activities and the sociodemographic vari-ables, such as great-grandparents’ age (p ≤.05), education (p ≤.01), health status (p ≤.05), the distance at which they live from their great-grandchildren (p ≤.05). Also, it was found that participants generally con-sider the role of great-grandparent to be a continuation of their prior role as grandparent, albeit from the perspective of a formal intergenerational ty-pology, distinct from the informal typology and, above all, opposed to the role of substitute/surrogate. Greater perceived satisfaction was associated with this typical interaction of the formal role (p ≤.01). Great-grandparents may already be fulfilling a notable function in today’s four-generation fami-lies.