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