Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 51, Issue 2 S91-S95, Copyright © 1996 by The Gerontological Society of America

ARTICLES

Young adults' relations with grandparents following recent parental divorce

TM Cooney and LA Smith
Department of Individual and Family Studies, University of Delaware, Newark 19716, USA.

This study employed a large survey of young adults to consider the association between recent parental divorce and intergenerational solidarity between adult grandchildren and their grandparents. The results indicate no significant association between parental divorce and young adults' reports of affective, associational, or functional solidarity in relation to either maternal or paternal grandparents. Adult grandchildren from divorced families, however, were more likely than those from intact families to initiate contacts with their grandparents on their own, and to see their paternal grandparents without their father accompanying them. We conclude that parental divorce does not influence adult grandchild-grandparent relations because, at least in part, adult grandchildren are less dependent than young children on the middle-generation parent to facilitate this relationship.