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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| The moral economy of grandparenting | | Author(s) | Sue Arthur, Dawn Snape, Geoff Dench |
| Journal title | Generations Review, vol 13, no 2, April 2003 |
| Pages | pp 10-12 |
| Keywords | Grandparents ; Social roles ; Family relationships ; Qualitative Studies. |
| Annotation | In a benchmark study of grandparenting reported in the British Social Attitudes Survey 1999 (Chapter 7, The role of grandparents, by Dench et al), some discrepancies between grandparents' attitudes and their behaviour are noted by the authors of this article. While the 1999 survey found a positive association between levels of activity and role satisfaction, this relationship did not hold at the highest rates of activity. For this article, the authors conducted a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with 31 case study families, comprising 67 respondents from the 1998 British Social Attitudes Survey. The authors outline the context and motivations for grandparent involvement in looking after grandchildren, and in negotiating grandmother involvement. The research design draws on the idea of a "moral economy", the idea of exchanges or reciprocity within families. Grandmothers' dissatisfaction with their involvement with grandchildren appears to arise from two scenarios: where they feel overcommitted in their responsibilities; and where they feel less involved than they would like, particularly because of low levels of day-to-day contact. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-031007219 A |
| Classmark | SW: TM5: DS:SJ: 3DP |
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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