What It Means to be a Grandmother: A Cross-Cultural Study of Taiwanese and Euro-American Grandmothers' Beliefs

Abstract

This study investigates Euro-American and Taiwanese grandmothers' folk theories of their roles, discipline, and advice giving. In each case, 16 grandmothers of 3-year-old grandchildren participated in in-depth interviews that were customized according to local communicative norms. While grandmothers in both contexts were engaged in similar tasks and perceived their roles as distinct from that of mothers, their interpretations of these tasks differed. Euro-American grandmothers saw their roles as companions to their grandchildren; they did not see themselves as disciplinarians and found advice giving problematic. Taiwanese grandmothers saw themselves primarily as temporary caregivers; they readily disciplined misbehaving grandchildren and advised their daughters-in-law. Results contribute to the finding that grandmothers' roles are culture specific, leading to different understandings of the family unit.