Young Adult Grandchildren Research Articles

The Transmission of Religious Beliefs across Generations: Do Grandparents Matter?

Despite substantial changes in the family’s structure over the past four decades, parents continue to exert a lasting imprint on the religious ideology and commitments of their children. However, research on the intergenerational transmission of religious beliefs, values and practices to younger generations has not included the ways in which grandparents- particularly grandmothers-influence the religiosity of youth. Drawing on the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG), we examined the extent to which grandmothers and parents influence the religious beliefs of adolescent and young adult grandchildren. First, we asked whether grandmothers influence the religious beliefs of their grandchildren independently of the grandchildren ’s parents. Our results indicated that grandmothers and grandchildren resembled one another on a series of statements conveying conservative religious beliefs and attitudes . Second, we examined patterns of religious transmission from grandmothers and parents to their children. We found that grandmothers transmitted their religious beliefs to grandchildren more strongly when mothers were more religious. Our third research question asked whether parental divorce weakens religious continuity across generations. We found that divorce adversely affected religious transmission from mothers to their children, but not from fathers and grandmothers. In addressing our fourth research question about the role of gender in religious transmission, we found that religious similarity between grandmothers and granddaughters was particularly strong. In general, our study showed a significant degree of religious similarity across three generations in the family, and offers an expanded view of religious socialization by considering grandmothers as active contributors to the religious beliefs of contemporary young adults.

Transmission of Religious Beliefs across Generations: Do Grandparents Matter?

Despite substantial changes in the family’s structure over the past four decades, parents continue to exert a lasting imprint on the religious ideology and commitments of their children. However, research on the intergenerational transmission of religious beliefs, values and practices to younger generations has not included the ways in which grandparents-particularly grandmothers-influence the religiosity of youth. Drawing on the Longitudinal Study ofGenerations (LSOG), we examined the extent to which grandmothers and parents influence the religious beliefs of adolescent and young adult grandchildren. First, we asked whether grandmothers influence the religious beliefs oftheir grandchildren independently ofthe grandchildren’s parents. Our results indicated that grandmothers and grandchildren resembled one another on a series of statements conveying conservative religious beliefs and attitudes. Second, we examined patterns ofreligious transmission from grandmothers and parents to their children. We found that grandmothers transmitted their religious beliefs to grandchildren more strongly when mothers were more religious. Our third research question asked whether parental divorce weakens religious continuity across generations. We found that divorce adversely affected religious transmission from mothers to their children, but not from fathers and grandmothers. In addressing our fourth research question about the role of gender in religious transmission, we found that religious similarity between grandmothers and granddaughters was particularly strong. In general, our study showed a significant degree ofreligious similarity across three generations in the family, and offers an expanded view of religious socialization by considering grandmothers as active contributors to the religious beliefs of contemporary young-adults.

Young Adults' Reactions to Grandparent Painful Self-Disclosure: The Influence of Grandparent Sex and Overall Motivations for Communication

This study examined young adult grandchildren's self-reports about the influence of grandparent sex on perceived grandparent painful self-disclosure (PSD) as well as their reactions to grandparent dyad PSD. Perceived grandmother and grandfather motivations for overall communication were assessed as mediators of young adult grandchildren's discomfort with grandparent dyad PSD. Findings show that participants perceived PSD more in their interactions with their maternal grandmothers compared to their maternal grandfathers. These young adult grandchildren were less likely to report discomfort if they perceived grandparents to be communicating overall for the purposes of positive affect, or identity, but more likely to feel discomfort if they perceived grandparents to be communicating for the purpose of control.

Intergenerational Influences on Perceptions of Current Relationships with Grandparents

The purpose of this research is to investigate inter-generational kinship variables as predictors of perceptions of current grandparent-grandchild relationship quality. A lifecourse perspective is used to demonstrate the need for consideration of the GP-GCH relationship within a three-generational, dynamic framework linking the past and present. Matrifocal kinkeeping, lineage and caregiving history hypotheses are tested in the current study. Responses from a combined sample of 321 young adult grandchildren about their relationships with their parents and all living grandparents provide the basis for the present research. GP-GCH relationship quality is the dependent variable under consideration, which combines perceived emotional closeness and frequency of contact with each of the four possible grandparent types. Independent variables tested include caregiving by grandparents during childhood, young adults' current relationship quality with mothers and fathers, and mothers' and fathers' relationships with parents and in-laws, as appropriate. Using stepwise multiple regression, GP-GCH relationship quality is predicted by a history of caregiving for the grandchild by the grandparent in question, as well as direct lineage connections, with mothers' relationships with their children and parents influencing grandchildren's relationships with maternal grandparents, and fathers' relationships with their parents and children showing similar patterns for grandchildren's relationships with paternal grandparents. The present data provide support for lineage and caregiving history hypotheses rather than matrifocal kinkeeping as predictors of intergenerational kinship patterns.

How Gender Moderates the Grandparent-Grandchild Relationship

This study examined whether young adult grandchildren's reports on the closeness, importance, and satisfaction with their favorite grandparent were moderated by the gender of the grandchild, grandparent, or parent and whether these associations, if found, supported kin-keeper versus kin-selector theories of family relations. Participants were 206 American young adults with a favorite living grandparent. Gender was related to both the closeness and importance young adults ascribed to the relation they have with their grandparents. No effects of gender on satisfaction with the grandchild-grandparent relation were found. Stronger support for men and women as kin keepers rather than as kin selectors was found.

Relationships Among Life Events and Psychological Well-Being: More Evidence for a Two-Factor Theory of Well-Being

Relationships between 11 major life events and changes in psychological well-being were examined in a three-generation sample: grandparents, their adult children, and their young adult grandchildren. Psychological well-being was measured using the Bradburn Affect Balance Scale. Life events included marriages; divorces; births of children; deaths of spouses, children, and parents; health declines; hospitalizations; improved standard of living; retirement; and retirement of one's spouse. Both positive and negative affect demonstrated similar stability over 14 years and were equally predictable from the life events. However, consistent with a two-factor conceptualization of psychological well-being, for all generations, desirable life events predicted change in positive affect whereas undesirable events predicted change in negative affect; cross-domain prediction was minimal. Results further indicated that whether life events are expected may be more important in predicting subsequent psychological well-being than whether they are desirable or undesirable.

Married with Children: Protest and the Timing of Family Life Course Events

The purpose of this study is to compare the family life course transitions of activist and nonactivist youth who were first surveyed in 1971. Is it true, as other studies have suggested, that activists from the 1960s were likely to delay marriage and childbearing compared to their nonactivist age peers? If this was so, was it because the values, attitudes, and commitments expressed in the movements of the New Left influenced young adults to reconsider traditional family roles? PREVIOUS RESEARCH Previous research has shown that activists' family and occupational life is different from that of their peers. For example, research has shown that activists tend to remain single or have fewer children (Fendrich, 1977; Whalen & Flacks, 1984). In an intensive study of the life course of former activists from Santa Barbara who were arrested for the burning of the Bank of America, Whalen and Flacks (1989) found that political values and commitments of the New Left continued to guide occupational as well as political choices. Although some studies have suggested similar conclusions (Braungart, 1977; Fendrich, 1977), most were not designed to examine the effects of activism on other areas of life and did not include detailed information on activists' subsequent family or career histories. Also, most of the investigations were conducted over a relatively short time period, allowing too small a time for activists to have completed transitions to marriage and parenthood. Another neglected aspect of activists' lives has been social class. Because activists were most likely to come from middle-class, professional families (Flacks, 1970), differences in the timing of family transitions may be due to social class differences rather than to the experience of protest itself. Working-class and blue-collar young adults tend to marry earlier (Elder, 1978) and are already burdened with competing role obligations. They are less likely to attend college and are more likely to marry immediately after high school (McLaughlin et al., 1988; Rubin, 1976); therefore, they are less likely to be exposed to political activism. Working-class young adults do not have the time and resources to protest, they do not participate in the social world where protest is salient, nor are they socialized to those values that promote protest. Most studies have not made comparisons between class experiences but rather have confined their analyses to comparisons of middle-class college students (Fendrich & Tarleau, 1973; Whalen, 1980). There is evidence that attitudes, especially gender role attitudes, also affect family events timing decisions (Mott & Mott, 1984). Women who have less traditional gender role attitudes have more successful contraception and men who have less traditional gender role ideology are more likely to use contraception themselves (Hedin-Poureghasian, 1977). Timing decisions are also related to the amount of power a woman has to control her own fertility. One factor that limits a woman's power in the family is the presence of small children (Blood & Wolfe, 1960). Women who are political activists, and are likely to desire more social power and independence, would be expected to maximize their advantage by having fewer children. SAMPLE AND METHODS Data for these analyses are taken from a longitudinal study of 2,044 members of three-generation California families (for a detailed description of the study, see Bengtson, 1975). The individuals used in this research are a subset of young adult grandchildren (G3s) who participated in the 1971 and the 1985 waves of data collection. Individuals who were active in demonstrations (n = 193 in 1971 and n = 143 in 1985) were compared with other G3s in the sample (n = 341 in 1985). This was a generation of young adults in 1971 who ranged in age from 15 to 29 (mean age 19 in 1971 and 33 in 1985). There were 50 individuals who were active in demonstrations in 1971 but did not participate in the 1985 survey. …

Young adults' relations with their grandparents: an exploratory study.

Some of the major aspects of the relationship between young adult grandchildren and their grandparents were examined. A sample of 269 undergraduate females, each with at least one living grandparent, responded to a survey instrument that assessed their current frequency of interaction and perceived emotional closeness with respect to each living grandparent. Results suggested that the grandparent's kin position relative to the grandchild was a critical variable, more so than the grandparent's sex, in influencing the intensity of the bond, Adult grandchildren tended to be significantly closer to maternal than paternal grandparents, and were significantly closer emotionally to the maternal grandmother than to each of the other grandparents. Also found was a wide variability among young adult grandchildren in their current involvement and emotional attachment to grandparents.

Significance of Grandparents: Perceptions of Young Adult Grandchildren

Significance of Grandparents: Perceptions of Young Adult Grandchildren