Trust as a mediator between family communication patterns and relational maintenance in grandparent-adult child-grandchild relationships

ABSTRACT

Grandparents in the United States play increasingly significant familial and societal roles, yet an underexplored aspect of their experiences is how the relationship between grandparents and their adult child influences the development of grandparent-grandchild relationships. To address this gap, this study explores (a) the associations between family communication patterns and grandparent-grandchild relational maintenance behaviors, and (b) the extent trust in their adult child mediates those relationships. Data from grandparents (N = 380, M_age = 57.17, SD = 9.68) revealed higher conversation orientations were indirectly associated with increased use of assurances, conflict management, positivity, advice, and social networks with the grandchild through trust in the adult child, whereas higher conformity orientations were indirectly associated with decreased use of these behaviors with the grandchild through trust in the adult child. These findings point to the complex nature of intergenerational family relationships and how trust in the adult child influences grandparent-grandchild relationships.

KEYWORDS:

• Grandparent-grandchild relationships
• family communication patterns theory
• relational maintenance behaviors
• trust

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Given the focus of this study on grandparent relationships with adult children and grandchildren, we considered seven theoretically relevant covariates in our analyses (Becker et al., 2016) including grandparent age, gender, general health and near-parental roles along with grandchild gender and geographic proximity (see Method). Empirically, these have been identified in previous scholarship as being associated with other key variables in our model (e.g., Barnett et al., 2010; Fowler & Soliz, 2010; McNallie & Gettings, 2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jenna McNallie

Jenna McNallie (PhD, Purdue University) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Film, and New Media at Augsburg University. Her research is situated at the intersections of interpersonal and mass communication, and focuses on the role of media in the formation of relationship beliefs and expectations.

Patricia E. Gettings

Patricia E. Gettings (PhD, Purdue University) is an assistant professor of communication at the State University of New York at Albany. She currently studies how individuals’ personal relationships and organizational lives influence one another, and how individuals and organizations communicatively negotiate these overlapping spaces.