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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Implications for grandparents when they lose contact with their grandchildren
— divorce, family feud, and geographical separation | | Author(s) | Linda M Drew, Peter K Smith |
| Journal title | Journal of Mental Health and Aging, vol 8 no 2, Summer 2002 |
| Pages | pp 95-120 |
| Keywords | Grandparents ; Grandchildren ; Family relationships ; Divorce ; Geographical distance ; Social surveys. |
| Annotation | Grandparenting is an important part of development and has been linked to increased psychological well-being. The authors assessed the impact of the loss of the grandparent-grandchild relationship for 272 grandparents in the UK who participated in a postal questionnaire. Grandparents who had never lost contact with their grandchildren were compared at 2 time points to those who had lost contact, due to family feud (not related to divorce), divorce or separation, and those separated by more than 100 miles geographical distance. At Time 1, levels of proximity, contact and emotion were comparable. Loss of contact was associated with intense chronic grief, lowered quality of life, and poorer emotional and physical health. Those affected by family feud were the most severely affected, followed by those affected by divorce. Proximity was not as severely reduced after loss for those affected by family feud and divorce, but levels of contact and emotional closeness were much lower. More intense levels of grief were predicted by greater loss of contact in the grandparent-grandchild relationship, greater importance placed on the grandparenting role, and greater insecurity of attachment. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020924223 A |
| Classmark | SW: SW5: DS:SJ: SOH: RJ: 3F |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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