Grandparents- grandchildren relationship

Although grandparents can play a crucial role in the lives of their grandchildren in terms of education, only recently has grandparenthood been a topic in international literature. Studies have suggested that the extent of grandparental investment is influenced by age, gender and paternal/maternal side. Purpose: 1) explore grandparents' perception of their relation with grandchildren; 2) investigate whether grandparent's gender, age and maternal/paternal side have influenced grandparents' perception. Methods: A 26 item self-report questionnaire was administered to 373 Italian grandparents (153 male) age ranging between 53 and 88 years of age. The questionnaire aimed to investigate attitudes and feelings towards grandchild, shared activities, and viewpoint on their children's parenting style. Results displayed that grandmothers shared activities with their grandchildren more than grandfathers (p<.01); the paternal grandparents shared activities with their grandchildren, more than maternal ones (p<.01). No statistically significant differences were found between younger and older grandparent groups. Conclusions. Throughout literature maternal grandparents have always been indicated as the ones more involved in grandchildren' lives, our results show that paternal grandparents share activities with grandchildren more than maternal ones. These results confirm even further that grandparents play a major role in grandchildren education.