Emotional Closeness between Grandparents and Grandchildren in Rural China: The Mediating Role of the Middle Generation

Abstract

Grandparent-grandchild relationships are important in Chinese society and the middle generation plays an important role in them. The present study drew on data from the 2009 wave of the Longitudinal Study of Older Adults in Anhui Province, China, to examine variation in emotional closeness between grandparents and their grandchildren. Our focus was on the middle generation as a relational bridge to grandchildren in terms of grandparents’ gender, emotional closeness to their adult children, and kinship status (paternal versus maternal lineage). We analyzed reports from 926 grandparents about their relationships with 1,982 grandchildren. Logistic cluster regression analyses revealed that closeness between grandparents and their adult children was strongly associated with grandparent-grandchild closeness. Paternal grandparents reported closer relationships with their grandchildren than did maternal grandparents, and these relationships were particularly strong for paternal grandmothers. Contrary to what we had hypothesized, the influence of emotional closeness to adult children was not moderated by lineage. We conclude that the middle generation provides an important bridge between grandparents and grandchildren and that gender and lineage type serve as strong facilitators of these relationships.

KEYWORDS:

• emotional closeness
• family systems
• Chinese families
• intergenerational relations
• grandparenting
• aging families

Editors’ note: The editors thank Ling Xu, Merril Silverstein, and Iris Chi for their contribution of this invited paper for volume 12, issue 3.