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RESEARCH ARTICLE |
1 Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, Atlanta.
2 Center for Demographic Studies, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
Address correspondence to Donald C. Reitzes, Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, University Plaza, Atlanta, GA 30303. E-mail: socdcr{at}langate.gsu.edu
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Abstract |
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Methods. Data were collected in 1997 from 203 middle-aged grandmothers and grandfathers living in the Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill, North Carolina, metropolitan area. We are especially interested in whether three self factors, grandparent identity meanings, grandparent centrality, and self-esteem, are related to frequency of contact with grandchildren and grandparent role satisfaction.
Results. Results indicate that there are gender differences in the factors that influence the frequency of contact between grandparents and grandchildren. The self variables influenced frequency of contact for grandfathers but not for grandmothers. Stronger support for our expectation emerged in the analysis of factors that influence grandparent satisfaction. All three self factors are positively related to grandparent role satisfaction for both grandmothers and grandfathers.
Discussion. More research is needed on the expectations and experiences of the grandparent role. In this study, we focused attention on self processes. The finding that grandparent identity meanings, grandparent centrality, and self-esteem influence grandparent role satisfaction suggests that self factors should be included in comprehensive investigations of grandparenthood. The next step is to explore the grandparent identity in more detail and investigate how it relates to other identities and to the well-being of older persons.
GRANDPARENTHOOD has become a central part of the normal aging process. As a result of increased longevity, adults today can spend several decades in the role of grandparent. Indeed, Silverstein and Marenco (2001)
suggested that men and women might spend almost half their lives in the role, and it is not uncommon for grandparents to see grandchildren enter adulthood. Becoming a grandparent is increasingly less a marker indicating the transition to old age than one of the experiences associated with midlife. Today, many adults first become a grandparent while they are still actively engaged in their occupational careers and involved in many other roles and activities (Szinovacz, 1998a). Reitzes and Mutran (2002) found that the grandparent role was among the most likely to be identified as important by middle-aged, working men and women and typically more important than the role of worker. For men, only the roles of parent and spouse were more important than grandparent, and for women, only the roles of parent and friend were identified as more important. Clearly, the grandparent role is a significant role for older adults. Therefore, it is surprising when Somary and Stricker (1998) noted that "strikingly little psychological research has been done on expectations and experiences of grandparenthood" (p. 53).
Past research on grandparenthood, and especially satisfaction in the grandparent role, has tended to focus on three sets of factors. First, a common theoretical proposition and empirical finding is that the more frequently noncustodial grandparents interact with their grandchildren, the more satisfied they are with the grandparent role (Peterson, 1999). Second, scholars have had an ongoing interest in the notion that grandparent role satisfaction may vary by gender (Szinovacz, 1998b). Third, a wide variety of social background factors, including socioeconomic resources, race, age, and education have been found to influence the extent to which grandparents are satisfied with their roles (Silverstein & Marenco, 2001). In this investigation, we extend past inquiries by considering three self factors, grandparent identity meanings, grandparent centrality, and self-esteem, which symbolic interaction theory (Stryker & Burke, 2000) suggests may provide a set of intrinsic motives that increase role satisfaction. Further, because frequency of grandparent–grandchildren contact is itself an interesting behavioral outcome of the grandparent role, we also will explore how social background and self factors are related to frequency of contact. The data for our investigation include 203 middle-aged grandparents interviewed in 1997 and residing in the Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill, North Carolina, metropolitan area. All the respondents had been working full-time in 1992, and by the time of the interview about a third (32%) had retired, whereas the remainder (68%) were still employed full-time. Unlike some of the earlier studies that only investigated White grandmothers, this sample will allow us to consider the experiences of both Blacks and Whites, grandmothers and grandfathers.
Frequency of Contact, Gender, and Other Social Background Factors
Figure 1 depicts the conceptual model that underlies our investigation. We focus our attention on two features of the grandparent role experience: grandparent satisfaction, an overall assessment of the role experience, and frequency of contact between grandparents and grandchildren, a grandparent role-related interaction. We begin with the expectation that frequency of contact between grandparents and grandchildren is positively related to grandparent satisfaction. A central tenet of symbolic interaction theory is that individuals use their behaviors and interaction with others as a basis for assessing their own role performances (Stryker & Burke, 2000). The literature on grandparenthood suggests that the relationship between frequency of contact and grandparent satisfaction is complex. For example, custodial grandparenting has a negative effect on the role satisfaction of grandparents (Hayslip, Shore, Henderson, & Lambert, 1998). Several studies have found that the quality of the parent–grandparent tie influences both the frequency of grandchildren–grandparent contact and grandparents' role satisfaction (Roberto, Allen, & Blieszner, 2001; Whitbeck, Hoyt, & Huck, 1993). Nevertheless, there is evidence that frequency of contact is a persistent factor that influences grandparent satisfaction and other affective–cognitive assessments of the grandparent role (Peterson, 1999; Silverstein & Marenco, 2001). Contact with grandchildren may provide grandparents with a range of positive experiences, including a sense of emotional closeness to grandchildren, strengthened generational ties linking family members, social solidarity, and the satisfaction of fulfilling normative expectations (Silverstein, Giarrusso, & Bengtson, 1998).
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). The research findings on gender differences in grandparent satisfaction are inconclusive. Thomas (1989) concluded that grandmothers expressed greater grandparent role satisfaction than did grandfathers, suggesting that continuity with maternal involvement in childrearing may make women more comfortable and satisfied in the grandparent role. Somary and Stricker (1998) also found that grandmothers were more satisfied in the grandparent role than grandfathers. On the other hand, Peterson (1999) reported no gender difference in grandparent satisfaction in her Australian sample. Stronger evidence exists of gender difference in frequency of contacts. Silverstein and Marenco (2001) found that grandmothers were more likely than grandfathers to have participated with their grandchildren in recreational activities, religious activities, and family gatherings; similarly, grandchildren reported more contact with their grandmothers than with their grandfathers (Roberto & Stroes, 1992). One of the advantages of the study reported here is that our sample includes both men and women. We are able to explore gender differences in frequency of contact with grandchildren and grandparent role satisfaction. Further, we also will be able to investigate how grandmothers are different from grandfathers in the manner that social background and self variables are related to frequency of contact and grandparent role satisfaction.
Social background factors also may influence contact with grandchildren and grandparent role satisfaction. We expect that grandparents who are married will have more contact with their grandchildren and will be more satisfied with the role (Kivett, 1991). Past research findings suggest that African American grandparents may have more contact with their grandchildren than Whites and that older adults with lower educational attainment, as an indicator of working-class status, may be more satisfied in their grandparent role than grandparents with higher levels of education (King & Elder, 1998). Finally, poor health may limit opportunities for contact with grandchildren and inhibit role satisfaction (Silverstein & Marenco, 2001).
Self Factors
One of the most important contributions of symbolic interaction theory (Stryker & Burke, 2000) is the understanding that behaviors are not just consequences of external forces and pressures, but also result from individuals actively striving to protect and enhance self-conceptions. Cooley (1902) noted that the establishment and maintenance of a positive self-conception is an important motive for individual action, and Goffman (1959) described in vivid detail how individuals actively use social interaction and self-initiated lines of action to confirm positive self-meanings. In this study, we investigate the impact of three self-meanings—grandparent identity meanings, grandparent centrality, and self-esteem—and how they are related to frequency of contact with grandchildren and grandparent role satisfaction.
Symbolic interaction theory recognizes that individuals not only learn social roles but also create identities (self-meanings) in their roles (Gecas & Burke, 1995). Thus, in addition to learning the rights and obligations of being a grandparent, men and women also socially construct images of themselves as grandparents. Foote (1951) proposed that, once an identity is created, a person has a self-motive for engaging in role-related behaviors and for striving to achieve satisfying role experiences. Burke (1991) argued that people define social situations and initiate lines of action, in part, to affirm and support identity meanings.
Of all the studies of grandparenthood conducted in the past 20 years, relatively few have investigated grandparent identity or role meanings. Robertson (1977) distinguished a social and a personal dimension of the grandparent identity and found that women who had low scores on both dimensions had lower life satisfaction scores. Kivnick (1982) proposed that the grandparent role contained five sets of meanings: (a) centrality, (b) valued elder, (c) immortality through clan, (d) reinvolvement with personal past, and (e) indulgence. These dimensions were not related to either life satisfaction or morale for grandfathers, but some of the dimensions were negatively related to morale for grandmothers. Later, Thomas (1990) constructed her own measure, which contained three dimensions: symbolic meanings, which combined Kivnick's five sets of meanings into a single, composite dimension; authority; and a third dimension that combined satisfaction with the role and nurturance. The findings revealed that only the grandparent satisfaction–nurturance dimension was related to morale and life satisfaction. We will use a new measure of grandparent identity that focuses on the positive meanings associated with being a grandparent and propose that grandparent identity meanings will be positively related to contact with grandchildren and satisfaction with the grandparent role.
Second, in addition to creating identities in roles, symbolic interactionists (McCall & Simmons, 1989; Rosenberg, 1979) argued that individuals also attribute their own intrinsic importance to their roles. Centrality refers to the relative or ranked importance that a person attributes to his or her roles. It is a subjective evaluation of a role and highlights one of the ways individuals add meaning and value to their roles. By identifying a role as central, a person is privileging the role at the expense of other roles, even other intrinsically valued ones. An individual may decide to devote greater material and physical resources, as well as invest more personal time, energy, and commitment in more central roles. Reitzes and Mutran (2002) studied middle-aged, working men and women and found that spouse centrality had a direct significant effect on satisfaction in the spouse role for men and women but that neither worker centrality nor parent centrality influenced satisfaction in their respective roles.
An interesting empirical issue surrounds the centrality of the grandparent role. Past studies have found that the grandparent role, while not as important for most people as being a parent or spouse, is nevertheless among the more central roles held by middle-aged and older men and women (Roberto et al., 2001). There is, however, variability in the importance attributed to the grandparent role. Silverstein and Marenco (2001) found that men and women who had at least some college education were less likely than those with less than a high school education to attribute importance to the grandparent role. The finding supports King and Elder's (1998) conclusion that less educated adults tend to attribute greater importance to being a grandparent, possibly because of strong ties and proximity to kin among working-class adults. We propose that grandparent centrality will have a positive effect on grandparent–grandchildren interaction and on grandparent role satisfaction.
Finally, one of the core insights of symbolic interaction theory is that through social interaction individuals develop a self-concept that provides an independent basis for action and behavior (Mead, 1934). The desire to maintain an existing global self-concept may encourage a person to enact confirming role and identity behaviors. Indeed, Gecas and Burke (1995) proposed the existence of a self-esteem motive. The desire to maintain self-esteem, a positive evaluation of one's self and a sense of self-worth, may encourage a person to engage in role-appropriate behaviors and to work to create satisfying and fulfilling roles. Self-esteem may provide the self-confidence that enables a person to set high standards and the determination to achieve those goals. Self-esteem also may reduce and inhibit the self-doubt and uncertainty that can reduce the satisfaction and enjoyment of roles (Rosenberg, 1979). Following the implications of a self-esteem motive, we propose that self-esteem will be positively related to contact with grandchildren and to grandparent role satisfaction.
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Methods |
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, we mailed out two introductory letters and screening postcards (3 weeks apart) and followed up with telephone calls (up to 12 tries) to verify telephone numbers and identify full-time working subjects living in the area. The screening procedures identified 1,332 people as eligible for participation in the retirement study. The data collection began in 1992, and 826 (62% of those contacted) participated in two 30-min telephone interviews. The response rate may have been lowered because of the length of the interviews, but they are similar to response rates for other telephone surveys (Thoits, 1995). Each of the 826 workers was tracked at intervals of 6 months for the next 5 years, or until they retired. Over the course of the 5 years of data collection, 188 people dropped out of the study for a number of reasons (e.g., death, illness, relocation, disinterest), creating an overall attrition rate of 23%. In this study, we focus on the third and final wave of data collection that occurred between March and June 1997, during which 255 people were interviewed. We limit our attention to the 203 men and women who identified themselves as grandparents and answered the 31 grandparent questions that were added for the 1997 data collection. Overall, the grandparent sample contains a diverse set of respondents with a variety of social background characteristics: 54% were men, 87% were Whites, 73% were married, and 32% were retired. This degree of sample diversity allows us to pursue the primary goals of exploring self and social background factors that may influence the frequency of contact with grandchildren and their satisfaction with the grandparent role.
Variables
Beginning with the two outcome variables, grandparent satisfaction was measured by a single item that asked, "Are you satisfied with your grandparent role?," with response categories ranging from "very satisfied" (4) to "very dissatisfied" (1). Frequency of contact is based on the question, "Typically, how often do you see the grandchildren you see most frequently?," with responses of "daily" (6), "more than once a week" (5), "once a week" (4), "once a month" (3), "every few months" (2), and "once a year" (1).
Turning to the self variables, we offer a new approach to the measurement of grandparent identity meanings. Mortimer, Finch, and Kumka (1982) defined meaning dimensions that remain stable over time and influence the adaptation to adult roles. In a previous study, we created measures of worker, spouse, parent, and friend identity meanings by combining three dimensions: (a) "competent," which reflects instrumental or task-directed identity meanings; (b) "confident," which taps emotional or affective identity meanings; and (c) "sociable," which focuses on an interest in others (Reitzes & Mutran, 2002). In a similar manner, to measure grandparent identity meanings, we begin with a stem, such as, "As a grandparent ...," followed by 10 adjective pairs organized in a semantic differential 5-point format (Osgood, Gucci, & Tannenbaum, 1957). The adjective pairs included active–inactive, successful–unsuccessful, competent–not competent, relaxed–tense, happy–sad, confident–not confident, warm–cold, open–closed, interested in others–interested in self, and sociable–solitary. Summing the item scores allows us to create a single grandparent identity meanings scale (range = 10–50, alpha =.91). One of the important advantages of this measurement strategy is that it enables grandparent identity to be compared with other identity meanings such as those for worker, spouse, or friend.
Centrality refers to the relative importance that a person assigns to one of his or her roles (McCall & Simmons, 1989) and reflects one of the ways individuals infuse self-meanings and assessments into their roles. In this study, it is derived from a list of 11 roles (worker, neighbor, friend, spouse, parent, grandparent, son or daughter, sibling, religious person, volunteer, and other relative), and respondents were asked to identify their three most important roles. Grandparent centrality is a dummy variable and is scored as "1," if the grandparent role was chosen as the first, second, or third most important role, or "0," if the role was not among the three most important.
Self-esteem is a global measure that provides a general assessment of self-worth. We use Rosenberg's (1979) self-esteem scale, which has proved to be a durable and useful measure of a person's summary or overall evaluation of self. The scale includes 10 items, such as "I feel that I'm a person of worth, at least on an equal basis with others"; "I feel that I have a number of good qualities"; and "All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure" (recoded). Responses range from "strongly agree" (4) to "strongly disagree" (1). Scale scores range from 10 to 40, and the scale proved highly reliable (alpha =.87).
Finally, we include in the analysis a measure of gender and four social background variables. Male is a dichotomous variable, and married is a dichotomous variable that identifies respondents who are currently married or not married. Education reflects the highest grade completed in school and is coded in years. Race is measured with a dichotomous variable, White, with Whites coded "1" and non-Whites coded "0." Non-Whites are almost entirely African Americans (less than 1% of the non-Whites self-identified as Asian American, Hispanic, American Indian, or other). Poor health is a measure of subjective or self-reported functional limitation and is based on a seven-item scale of difficulties in performing activities such as walking, climbing stairs, standing or sitting for long periods of time, bending, lifting weights up to 10 lb (4.53 kg), and reaching above one's head, with responses of "never" = 1, "sometimes" = 2, and "often" = 3 (alpha =.83). Overall, almost 30% of the respondents never reported difficulties with any of the seven activities, and an additional 18% experienced difficulties sometimes, but only with one activity.
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Turning to the self factors, we find a different pattern. Although both women and men hold positive grandparent identity meanings with mean scores of 46.46 and 44.21, respectively, for women and men out of a maximum score of 50.00, women's grandparent identity meanings are more positive. In addition, 66% of the women ranked the grandparent role as one of their three most important roles, compared with only 42% of the men. Grandmothers and grandfathers did not differ in self-esteem, however, with both women and men holding similarly positive self-images. On the whole, although we find that the men in our sample have social background advantages relative to the women, and we observe no gender differences in grandparent satisfaction and self-esteem, grandmothers have more contact with their grandchildren, hold more positive grandparent identity meanings, and attribute greater centrality to the grandparent role than do grandfathers.
Analyses of Contact With Grandchildren and Grandparent Satisfaction
Table 2 presents the results of the regression analyses of the influence of social background and self factors on frequency of contact between grandchildren and grandparents. In order to explore the relative influence of social background and self variables, we entered the entire set of eight independent variables into a list-wise, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis. The model for the entire sample is statistically significant (F = 4.82, p <.001). Next, to test whether the genders differed in the way the independent variables, as a set, influenced frequency of contact between grandparents and grandchildren, we compared the sum of the squared residuals for a model that included only grandmothers with a model for grandfathers only (Chow, 1960). We found the two models statistically different (F = 3.37, p <.05), so we proceeded with the analyses of the separate models for grandmothers and grandfathers.
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). Poor health is positively related to grandchildren contact for grandmothers but related negatively to such contact for grandfathers. The poor health of grandmothers may encourage grandchildren to initiate more contact with them, both out of sympathy for their functional difficulties and from a sense of grandchild role expectations. Past studies have found that grandchildren perceived their relationships with their grandmothers as stronger than with their grandfathers (Roberto & Stroes, 1992). In contrast, poor health may make it difficult for grandfathers to initiate contact with their grandchildren. Among the self variables, we found that grandparent identity meanings and grandparent centrality have statistically significant positive influences on frequency of contact with grandchildren but only for grandfathers. Although self-esteem does not influence frequency of contact between grandparents and grandchildren for either grandmothers or grandfathers, the unstandardized coefficients are statistically different.
Table 3 presents the results of the regression analyses of frequency of contact with grandchildren, social background, and self variables on grandparent role satisfaction. The entire set of nine independent variables was entered into a list-wise, OLS regression analysis. The model for the entire sample is statistically significant (F = 4.61, p <.001). We also tested for gender differences in the way the independent variables influence grandparent role satisfaction (Chow, 1960) and found none (F = 1.62, p >.05). Therefore, we report only the regression analysis for the entire sample.
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), the regression analysis reveals that gender does not independently influence grandparent satisfaction. Second, as expected (Silverstein & Marenco, 2001), the more frequent the contact between grandparents and grandchildren, the more satisfied grandparents are with their role. It is also interesting to note that none of the social background variables influence grandparent satisfaction. Third, and in marked contrast to the social background variables, all three of the self variables independently influence grandparent satisfaction. The more positive a person's grandparent identity meanings, the more satisfied one is with the role. In addition, the greater the centrality attributed to the grandparent role, the greater the grandparent role satisfaction; and the greater one's self-esteem, the greater the grandparent role satisfaction. Fourth, the comparison of individual coefficients (Kleinbaum et al., 1988) indicates one interesting gender difference. Being married influences grandparent satisfaction in a very different way for women and men. For women, being married increases grandparent role satisfaction, whereas married men actually report lower satisfaction with their grandparent role than do unmarried men. It is possible that women link grandparenthood with other family roles and feel more comfortable being a grandparent when they are also married (Thomas, 1989). In contrast, divorced and widowed men may be particularly grateful for the family ties provided by being a grandparent. |
DISCUSSION |
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; Roberto et al., 2001). In this study, we began with an investigation of factors that influence frequency of contact between grandparents and grandchildren. As expected, we found that grandmothers have more contact with their grandchildren than grandfathers and that there are gender differences in the factors that influence contact (Silverstein & Marenco, 2001; Szinovacz, 1998b). We extend past inquiries by using symbolic interaction theory to suggest three self factors that also may influence grandparenthood. We found the self variables are not related to frequency of contact for grandmothers, but grandparent identity meanings and grandparent centrality were positively related to frequency of contact for grandfathers. One possible explanation is that traditional gender norms stress the responsibilities of women as kin keepers and the obligation of women to maintain ties between family members (Cherlin & Furstenberg, 1986). For women, contact with grandchildren may be perceived as prescriptive, a firm expectation of the role. Contact with grandchildren becomes a right and proper behavior for women, regardless of their grandparent identity or the centrality of the grandparent role. In contrast, the grandfather role may contain fewer expectations and is much more voluntary than for women. So, for men, contact with grandchildren provides an opportunity for self factors to influence role-related behaviors. For men with positive grandparent identity meanings and who attribute centrality to the grandparent role, contact with grandchildren becomes a behavior to confirm their self-concept.
Next, we investigated the influence of frequency of contact with grandchildren, social background, and self factors on satisfaction with the grandparent role. We were especially interested in confirming the expectation derived from symbolic interaction theory that self-meanings and self-investments in the role are related to role satisfaction. All three self variables were positively related to grandparent satisfaction. Symbolic interaction theory argues that individuals are not just passive role players but actively strive to confirm and enhance self-conceptions (Stryker & Burke, 2000). We propose that grandmothers and grandfathers with positive identity meanings and who attribute greater centrality to the role of grandparent are self-motivated to succeed and find satisfaction in the grandparent role. Similarly, the desire to maintain a positive sense of self-worth encourages a person to create satisfying and fulfilling roles. We hope that the self-concept measures described in this research and the suggestive findings will encourage future investigators of grandparenthood to include these self variables in their research studies.
The research has at least three limitations. First, our sample is local. All respondents are from the Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill metropolitan area. Although the sample provides a diverse set of working and retired grandmothers and grandfathers, a nationally representative sample would allow us to generalize our descriptive findings. A larger sample with more Blacks also would enable us to explore distinctive grandparenting experiences of African Americans, as well as differences by race and gender (Kivett, 1991). Second, both frequency of grandparent–grandchild contact and grandparent satisfaction are measured by global items. We would have preferred to use multi-item indicators, which would have allowed us to establish the reliability of the measures and to confirm that frequency of contact and grandparent satisfaction are each single constructs. Finally, in this study, we are limited to data gathered at a single point in time and therefore have to rely on our theory to make inferences about the direction of relationships among the variables. Longitudinal data are needed to truly test causal relationships. Indeed, symbolic interaction theory suggests that the relationship between self processes and roles are dynamic, both influenced by and influencing role behaviors and assessments. Therefore, we would expect that, over time, not only will self variables influence grandparent satisfaction but that grandparent satisfaction also will influence grandparent identity meanings, grandparent centrality, and self-esteem. We hope that our cross-sectional findings will encourage others to include these and other measures of self in their longitudinal investigations.
The next step in our research agenda is to focus on grandparent identity meanings. We are interested in exploring self meanings similarities and differences between the grandparent role and identities in the roles of parent, spouse, friend, and worker or retiree. Among the issues we wish to pursue is whether men and women view themselves similarly in all their roles or if identity meanings differ across roles. We are also interested in whether the grandparent identity independently influences global self-esteem or is part of a larger parent–grandparent identity cluster that influences well-being. Returning to our starting point, we take to heart Somary and Stricker's (1998) admonition about the paucity of research on the expectations and experiences of the grandparent role and strongly believe that more research should focus on the self processes embedded in grandparenthood.
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Acknowledgments |
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Elizabeth J. Mutran is now at the Institute on Aging, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
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Footnotes |
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Received for publication January 17, 2003. Accepted for publication July 21, 2003.
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