El rol y la importancia de los abuelos para sus nietos adolescentes

Abstract

This article analyses the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren from the point of view of adolescents. Subjects were 272 male and female students at secondary school and university (age 14-20, mean 16.4). They answered a questionnaire adapted from the GMA scale on the role and importance of grandparents in the lives of their adolescent grandchildren. Our data provide un insight into the main variables that form the grandchildren's perception of their grandparents. Older grandparents generally have conciliatory roles. Boys have a more distant perception of their grandparents than girls, who feel closer to them. Grandfathers have and give knowledge about old age and the family's past, while grandmothers act as caregiven and are closer to the everyday reality of the family. Finally, paternal grandparents are seen as distant figures, while maternal grandparents are perceived as having positive roles for the adolescents. These results are similar to those found in other studies carried out in Europe.