The association between divorce and late adolescent grandchildren's relations with grandparents

Abstract

While researchers have documented the possible effects of divorce on children's interpersonal relationships with significant others (e.g., parents, siblings, peers), research efforts examining the role of grandparents within these children's social networks are limited. For the present study, 588 late adolescent college students (266 males, 322 females) completed the Network of Relationships Inventory (W. Furman and D. Buhrmester [1985] “Children's Perceptions of the Personal Relationships in Their Social Network,” Developmental Psychology, Vol. 21, pp. 1016–1024) and frequency of contact estimates on each available biological grandparent. One hundred sixty-eight students were from families in which their biological parents had been divorced for more than two years. The remaining late adolescents were from intact families (i.e., biological parents still married). As hypothesized, late adolescent grandchildren from divorced families indicated less satisfactory relationships with paternal grandparents. In addition, granddaughters from divorced families indicated poorer relationships with parental grandparents when contrasted to grand-daughters in intact families and grandsons from divorced families. However, visible and phone contact with grandparents played a major role in sustaining relationships with grandparents for grandchildren from divorced families. Granddaughters, in general, also reported stronger relations with maternal grandmothers, regardless of group status. Explanations are offered for these results, as well as suggestions for future research.