Intergenerational leisure and family reconciliation

Abstract

Scientific literature suggests the contribution to family reconciliation as a motivation for leisure shared by grandparents and grandchildren. However, there are some discrepant results. The study aimed to examine the need for family reconciliation as a practical motivation for grandparents’ and grandchildren’s shared leisure, and its linkage with its frequency, the geographical residential area, and the cohabitation of both generations in the same home. A questionnaire was administered to 357 grandparents of children aged 6 to 12 years residing in northern Spain, and a descriptive study and inferential analysis of the data were performed. The results placed the need for family reconciliation in an intermediate position, below the motivations of entertainment and emotional motivations, but above those related to co-learning and the absence of other people to perform such activities. The need for family reconciliation is associated with the frequency of shared practice, but not with the geographical residential area or the fact that both generations cohabitate at the same address. The possible exceptionality of the current situation, within the framework of COVID-19, which may have produced significant alterations in the grandparent-grandchildren relationship, is discussed, with the consequent need to continue this line of inquiry.