Three-generation mobility in the United States, 1850-1940: the role of maternal and paternal grandparents

This paper estimates intergenerational elasticities across three generations in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, exploring how maternal and paternal grandfathers predict the economic status of their grandsons and granddaughters. We document that the relationship between the income of grandparents and grandchildren differs by gender. The socio-economic status of grandsons is more strongly associated with the status of paternal grandfathers than maternal grandfathers. The status of maternal grandfathers is more strongly correlated with the status of granddaughters than grandsons, while the opposite is true for paternal grandfathers. We argue that the findings can be rationalized by a model of gender-specific intergenerational transmission of traits and imperfect assortative mating.Accepted manuscrip

Grandparenting in Urban Bangalore, India: Support and Involvement From the Standpoint of Young Adult University Students

A variety of caregivers, including grandparents, help raise children. Among grandparents, most Western samples evidence a matrilateral (i.e., mother’s kin) bias in caregiving, and many studies show more positive impacts and stronger relationships with grandmothers than grandfathers. The aim of the present study is to test competing hypotheses about a potential laterality bias and explore contrasts between grandmothers and grandfathers in a sample of urban young adult university students in Bangalore, India. A sample of 377 (252 women) relatively mobile and high socioeconomic status individuals 17 to 25 years of age completed a survey consisting of sociodemographic and grandparenting questions. Results reveal generally little evidence of either a patrilateral or matrilateral bias, though findings varied for some outcomes. As illustrations, there were no differences in residential proximity or the most recent time when a participant saw matrilateral or patrilateral grandparents, whereas maternal grandmothers were more approving of one’s choice of a life partner than were paternal grandmothers. In inductively coded responses to an open-ended item about the roles of grandparents, maternal grandmothers were more often identified as “guides” and less often deemed “non-significant” than paternal grandmothers, while paternal grandfathers were less often viewed as guardians and more often noted for their influence compared with maternal grandparents. Findings also revealed differences between grandmothers and grandfathers, such as grandmothers playing more prominent roles in community and religious festivals. Findings are interpreted within changing residential, work, education, and family dynamics in urban India as well as a primary importance on parents relative to grandparents

\u27It\u27s Just What You Do:\u27 Exploring Relationships Between Young-Adult Grandchildren and their Grandfathers

The grandparent role is a dynamic and often ambivalent relationship requiring simultaneous navigation of “being there” and “not interfering” in the lives of grandchildren (Mason, May, & Clarke, 2007). These relationships change as grandchildren mature and can result in new grandparent-grandchild connections based on communication, intimacy, and mutual respect (Sheehan & Petrovic, 2008). Utilizing a sample of grandfathers and young-adult grandchildren (N = 32), this study investigated the impact that grandfathers have on their young-adult grandchildren. Utilizing a life course perspective, we asked: a) How do grandfathers invest in the futures of their young-adult grandchildren? b) How do young-adult grandchildren recognize and receive their grandfather’s investments in their futures? Results suggest that grandfathers emphasized their grandparenting role but undervalued their contributions to their grandchildren. Grandfathers and grandchildren also did not always agree on the transmissions intended and received. When asked to recall meaningful memories of grandfathers, young-adult grandchildren were more likely to remember instances of shared hobbies, interests, and personal connection. Findings have implications for understanding and strengthening the ties between grandfathers and their grandchildren

Understanding the Grandfather Role in Families

As adults continue to live longer and express satisfaction with grandparenting, an evaluation of the roles of grandfathers is warranted. Past research has focused on grandmothers, with little research explicitly investigating the experiences of grandfathers in families. This review assesses sociohistorical trends, demographic influences, gendered patterns, and changes that occur in grandfather-grandchild relationships throughout the lifecourse. We describe the roles grandfathers maintain in their grandchildren’s negotiation of psychosocial and ecological life course tasks, the change and stability they experience relative to sociohistorical trends, and how grandfathers reconfirm masculine norms through generativity and provision of instrumental support. Findings indicate that future research investigating how grandfathers and grandchildren define and value their roles from a dyadic perspective is warranted. Implications include increasing awareness surrounding the significance of the grandfather role across generations

Two Grandfathers

https://dh.howard.edu/ajc_grimke_manuscripts/1018/thumbnail.jp

Grandfathers caring for orphaned grandchildren in rural Southern Malawi : invisible in plain sight?

This thesis explores grandfathers’ caregiving for orphaned grandchildren in rural Southern Malawi. Using an ethnographic approach informed by intersectionality and situated within interpretivist framework, children, young people, and adults from rural impoverished communities of Zomba District were engaged in multiple participatory research activities to collect empirical data as evidence about their views and experiences on/of the topic. The findings suggest that although grandfathers are on the periphery of research and policy on grandparenting in Malawi and other regions of sub-Saharan Africa, they are incontrovertibly at the epicentre of their orphaned grandchildren’s lives. They are providers for their orphaned grandchildren, support their formal education, and are key to intergenerational transmission of knowledge and values through socialisation (informal education), roles which are characterised by intersections of, inter alia, culture, gender, age, physical health, generation, and poverty. Paradoxically, despite performing myriad caring roles in the plain sight of their communities, grandfathers remain largely invisible because of gendered conceptions of care. Subsequently, many grandfathers are systematically excluded from social support programmes, thus highlighting the social exclusion of grandfathers [men] who find themselves in roles not associated with hegemonic notions of masculinities in their communities. This social exclusion from welfare programmes may negatively impact their orphaned grandchildren’s development. Thus, there is need for greater recognition of grandfathers alongside other carers of orphans, and their targeting in social policy and programmes to benefit and assist orphans, particularly to offset livelihood challenges facing grandfathers. Ultimately, this would improve the lives of their orphaned grandchildren. Given the paucity of research on grandfathers’ caregiving for orphaned grandchildren in sub-Saharan Africa, further research is needed to interrogate, inter alia, gendered conceptions of care, gendered social support, and the plight of orphans raised by grandfathers in impoverished communities such as those that participated in this study

Invisible in Plain Sight? Grandfathers Caring for Orphaned Grandchildren in Rural Malawi

Millions of orphans, created by parental deaths due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, live with, and are cared for, by grandparents. Little research has considered how grandparents and, in particular, grandfathers, are caring for orphans. Here, we employ the analytical concept of generative grandfathering to analyse rural grandfathers’ roles in orphan care within communities of Zomba District, Southern Malawi. Using an ethnographic approach to investigate orphan care, we engaged children, young people and adults in multiple qualitative research activities, including interviews, focus group discussions, stakeholder and dissemination meetings. The findings suggest that although grandfathers’ contributions to orphan care are on the periphery of research and policy concerned with grandparenting in Malawi and other regions of sub-Saharan Africa, grandfathers are incontrovertibly at the epicentre of their orphaned grandchildren’s everyday lives. Grandfathers are providers for their orphaned grandchildren, they support their formal education, and are integral to the intergenerational transmission of both knowledge and values. However, despite performing myriad caring roles in plain sight of their communities, grandfathers remain largely invisible due to gendered (mis)conceptions of care. This highlights the dilemma of grandfathers as ageing men who find themselves in roles not traditionally associated with hegemonic notions of masculinity in their communities

Grandfathers and Fathers in Ukraine and Across Cultures

This article begins with a review of international research on how cultures and contexts influence the roles of grandfathers and fathers (for book-length reviews, see Shwalb & Hossain, 2018; Shwalb, Shwalb, & Lamb, 2013). Subsequently, this article describes the historical and contemporary background of Ukrainian society, provides a review of the extremely limited existing literature on families in Ukraine, and describes the results of exploratory open-ended interviews with 20 fathers and 20 grandfathers in Lviv City and three nearby villages in western Ukraine. The main finding of the interviews was a confirmation of several contextual influences on grandfathers and fathers, each of which has often been previously cited in the international literature. There were also notable differences between the interview responses of fathers and grandfathers, as well as between subjects in urban vs. rural locations. The interview data serve as a compelling, albeit exploratory, case example of contextual influences on intergenerational relations, and the relationship between psychology and culture