Grandparent-Grandchild Communication: Synthesis of Integrative Model
Keywords:
Grandparent-grandchild communication, Theoretical review, Future research directions, Theoretical synthesisAbstract
This paper systematically reviews research attending the main theoretical frameworks in the grandparent-grandchild (GP-GC) communication literature. The frameworks have been organized herein according to whether they are communicatively behavior-focused, affect-related, or intergroup-oriented. The specific theories under these umbrellas are then conceptualized in a two-dimensional space (i.e., high vs low interpersonal and intergroup dimensions), and their relative heuristic values are considered. Four directions for future GP-GC communication research are identified, including more longitudinal studies, increased attention to grandparents' perspectives, inclusion of additional theories, and increased attention to possible demographic differences in GP-GC communication. Highly heuristic GP-GC theories and these future research directions are then synthesized into a new integrative model that can be tested to continue advancing the study of this important social arena.
References
[1] Brussoni, M. J., & Boon, S. D. (1998). Grandparental impact in young adults’ relationships with their closest grandparents: the role of relationship strength and emotional closeness. The international journal of aging and human development, 46(4), 267–286. https://doi.org/10.2190/2B7B-E3LH-74JJ-UJRY
[2] Nussbaum, J. F., Lee Hummert, M., Williams, A., & Harwood, J. (1996). Communication and older adults. Annals of the international communication association, 19(1), 1–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.1996.11678927
[3] Harwood, J. (2000). Communicative predictors of solidarity in the grandparent-grandchild relationship. Journal of social and personal relationships, 17(6), 743–766. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407500176003
[4] Coupland, N., Coupland, J., & Giles, H. (1991). Language, society and the elderly: Discourse, identity and ageing. Basil Blackwell.
[5] Mansson, D. H., Myers, S. A., & Turner, L. H. (2010). Relational maintenance behaviors in the grandchild--grandparent relationship. Communication research reports, 27(1), 68–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824090903526521
[6] Soliz, J. (2008). Intergenerational support and the role of grandparents in post-divorce families: retrospective accounts of young adult grandchildren. Qualitative research reports in communication, 9(1), 72–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/17459430802400373
[7] Giles, H. (2016). Communication accommodation theory: Negotiating personal relationships and social identities across contexts. Cambridge University Press.
[8] Giles, H., Gasiorek, J., & Soliz, J. (2015). Recent developments in communication accommodation theory: innovative contexts and applications. Language and communication, 41(1), 1–100.
[9] Soliz, J., & Giles, H. (2014). Relational and identity processes in communication: a contextual and meta-analytical review of communication accommodation theory. Communication yearbook, 38, 106–143. DOI:10.1080/23808985.2014.11679160
[10] Gasiorek, J. (2016). The dark side of cat: nonaccommodation. In Communication accommodation theory: negotiating personal relationships and social identities across contexts (pp. 85–104). Cambridge University Press Cambridge, UK.
[11] Gasiorek, J., & Giles, H. (2015). The role of inferred motive in processing nonaccommodation: evaluations of communication and speakers. Western journal of communication, 79(4), 456–471. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2015.1066030
[12] Soliz, J., & Harwood, J. (2006). Shared family identity, age salience, and intergroup contact: investigation of the grandparent--grandchild relationship. Communication monographs, 73(1), 87–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750500534388
[13] Soliz, J. (2007). Communicative predictors of a shared family identity: comparison of grandchildren’s perceptions of family-of-origin grandparents and stepgrandparents. Journal of family communication, 7(3), 177–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267430701221636
[14] Fowler, C., & Soliz, J. (2010). Responses of young adult grandchildren to grandparents’ painful self-disclosures. Journal of language and social psychology, 29(1), 75–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X09351680
[15] Barker, V. (2007). Young adults’ reactions to grandparent painful self-disclosure: the influence of grandparent sex and overall motivations for communication. The international journal of aging and human development, 64(3), 195–215. https://doi.org/10.2190/KTNU-0373-20W7-4781
[16] Fowler, C. (2015). The role of shared family identity and future time perspective in shaping the outcomes of grandparents’ positive and negative social behaviors. Journal of family communication, 15(1), 20–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2014.980822
[17] Carstensen, L. L. (1992). Social and emotional patterns in adulthood: support for socioemotional selectivity theory. Psychology and aging, 7(3), 331–338. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0882-7974.7.3.331
[18] Ryan, E. B., Giles, H., Bartolucci, G., & Henwood, K. (1986). Psycholinguistic and social psychological components of communication by and with the elderly. Language & communication, 6(1–2), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/0271-5309(86)90002-9
[19] Harwood, J., Giles, H., Fox, S., Ryan, E. B., & Williams, A. (1993). Patronizing young and elderly adults: response strategies in a community setting. Journal of applied communication research, 21, 211-222. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909889309365368
[20] Giles, H., & Gasiorek, J. (2011). Intergenerational communication practices. In Handbook of the psychology of aging (pp. 233–247). Elsevier.
[21] Pecchioni, L. L., & Croghan, J. M. (2002). Young adults’ stereotypes of older adults with their grandparents as the targets. Journal of communication, 52(4), 715–730. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2002.tb02570.x
[22] Soliz, J., & Harwood, J. (2003). Perceptions of communication in a family relationship and the reduction of intergroup prejudice. Journal of applied communication research, 31(4), 320–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369681032000132582
[23] Hummert, M. L. (1994). Stereotypes of the elderly and patronizing speech. In Interpersonal communication in older adults: Interdisciplinary research (pp. 162-184). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
[24] Hummert, M. L., Garstka, T. A., Ryan, E. B., & Bonnesen, J. L. (2004). The role of age stereotypes in interpersonal communication. In Handbook of communication and aging research (pp. 91–114). Routledge.
[25] Anderson, K., Harwood, J., & Lee Hummert, M. (2005). The grandparent--grandchild relationship: implications for models of intergenerational communication. Human communication research, 31(2), 268–294. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2005.tb00872.x
[26] Harwood, J. (2000). Communication media use in the grandparent-grandchild relationship. Journal of communication, 50(4), 56–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2000.tb02863.x
[27] Holladay, S. J., & Seipke, H. L. (2007). Communication between grandparents and grandchildren in geographically separated relationships. Communication studies, 58(3), 281–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510970701518371
[28] Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management science, 32(5), 554–571. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.32.5.554
[29] Short, J., Williams, E., & Christie, B. (1976). The social psychology of telecommunications. Wiley.
[30] Child, J. T., Duck, A. R., Andrews, L. A., Butauski, M., & Petronio, S. (2015). Young adults’ management of privacy on facebook with multiple generations of family members. Journal of family communication, 15(4), 349–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2015.1076425
[31] Petronio, S. (2002). Boundaries of privacy: Dialectics of disclosure. Suny Press.
[32] Koerner, A. F., & Fitzpatrick, M. A. (2006). Family communication patterns theory: a social cognitive approach. In Engaging theories in family communication: multiple perspectives (pp. 50–65). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
[33] Tims, A. R., & Masland, J. L. (1985). Measurement of family communication patterns. Communication research, 12(1), 35–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365085012001002
[34] Adeniran, A. O., & Olorunfemi, S. O. (2020). The essence of knowledge management in the air transportation sector. International journal of human capital in urban management, 5(2), 175–186. DOI:10.22034/IJHCUM.2020.02.08
[35] Odenweller, K. G., Rittenour, C. E., Myers, S. A., & Brann, M. (2013). Father-son family communication patterns and gender ideologies: a modeling and compensation analysis. Journal of family communication, 13(4), 340–357. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2013.823432
[36] Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays. University of Texas Press.
[37] Dun, T. (2010). Turning points in parent-grandparent relationships during the start of a new generation. Journal of family communication, 10(3), 194–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2010.489218
[38] Bishop, D. I., Meyer, B. C., Schmidt, T. M., & Gray, B. R. (2009). Differential investment behavior between grandparents and grandchildren: the role of paternity uncertainty. Evolutionary psychology, 7(1), 147470490900700100. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/147470490900700109
[39] Euler, H. A., & Weitzel, B. (1996). Discriminative grandparental solicitude as reproductive strategy. Human nature, 7, 39–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02733489
[40] Mansson, D. H. (2013). The grandchildren received affection scale: examining affectual solidarity factors. Southern communication journal, 78(1), 70–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/1041794X.2012.729124
[41] Mansson, D. H. (2013). Further validity tests of the grandchildren’s received affection scale. Communication research reports, 30(3), 201–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2013.806253
[42] Mansson, D. H. (2013). College students’ mental health and their received affection from their grandparents. Communication research reports, 30(2), 157–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2012.763028
[43] Mansson, D. H. (2013). Affectionate communication and relational characteristics in the grandparent--grandchild relationship. Communication reports, 26(2), 47–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/08934215.2013.798670
[44] Mansson, D. H. (2014). Trust as a mediator between affection and relational maintenance in the grandparent-grandchild relationship. Southern communication journal, 79(3), 180–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/1041794X.2014.894555
[45] Mansson, D. H. (2014). Grandparents’ expressed affection for their grandchildren: examining the grandparents’ own psychological health. Communication research reports, 31(4), 329–338. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2014.963218
[46] Mansson, D. H., & Booth-Butterfield, M. (2011). Grandparents’ expressions of affection for their grandchildren: examining grandchildren’s relational attitudes and behaviors. Southern communication journal, 76(5), 424–442. https://doi.org/10.1080/1041794x.2010.508554
[47] Bengtson, V. L., & Roberts, R. E. L. (1991). Intergenerational solidarity in aging families: an example of formal theory construction. Journal of marriage and the family, 856–870. https://doi.org/10.2307/352993
[48] Moorman, S. M., & Stokes, J. E. (2016). Solidarity in the grandparent--adult grandchild relationship and trajectories of depressive symptoms. The gerontologist, 56(3), 408–420. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu056
[49] Giarrusso, R., Stallings, M., & Bengtson, V. L. (1995). The intergenerational stake hypothesis revisited: parent--child differences in perceptions of relationships 20 years later. In Adult intergenerational relations: effects of societal change (pp. 227–263). Springer Publishing Company.
[50] Harwood, J., & Lin, M. C. (2000). Affiliation, pride, exchange, and distance in grandparents’ accounts of relationships with their college-aged grandchildren. Journal of communication, 50(3), 31–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2000.tb02851.x
[51] Harwood, J. (2001). Comparing grandchildren’s and grandparents’ stake in their relationship. The international journal of aging and human development, 53(3), 195–210. https://doi.org/10.2190/TUNX-H3GE-VF7V-DKET
[52] Harwood, J., Giles, H., & Ryan, E. B. (1995). Aging, communication, and intergroup theory: social identity and intergenerational communication. In Handbook of communication and ageing research (pp. 133–159). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
[53] Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (2004). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In Political psychology (pp. 276–293). Psychology Press.
[54] Harwood, J. (2004). Relational, role, and social identity as expressed in grandparents’ personal web sites. Communication studies, 55(2), 300–318. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510970409388621
[55] Turner, J. C., Hogg, M., Oakes, P., Reicher, S., & Wetherell, M. (2017). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
[56] Harwood, J., Raman, P., & Hewstone, M. (2006). The family and communication dynamics of group salience. The journal of family communication, 6(3), 181–200. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327698jfc0603_2
[57] Gaertner, S. L., & Dovidio, J. F. (2014). Reducing intergroup bias: The common ingroup identity model. Psychology Press.
[58] Hecht, M. L. (1993). 2002—a research odyssey: toward the development of a communication theory of identity. Communications monographs, 60(1), 76–82. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637759309376297
[59] Jung, E., & Hecht, M. L. (2004). Elaborating the communication theory of identity: identity gaps and communication outcomes. Communication quarterly, 52(3), 265–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463370409370197
[60] Kam, J. A., & Hecht, M. L. (2009). Investigating the role of identity gaps among communicative and relational outcomes within the grandparent--grandchild relationship: the young-adult grandchildren’s perspective. Western journal of communication, 73(4), 456–480. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570310903279067
[61] Lin, M.-C., Harwood, J., & Bonnesen, J. L. (2002). Conversation topics and communication satisfaction in grandparent-grandchild relationships. Journal of language and social psychology, 21(3), 302–323. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X02021003005
[62] Allport, G. W., Clark, K., & Pettigrew, T. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Cambridge, MA.
[63] Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2013). Does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? recent meta-analytic findings. In Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 93–114). Psychology Press.
[64] Pettigrew, T. F. (1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual review of psychology, 49(1), 65–85. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.65
[65] Pettigrew, T. F., Tropp, L. R., Wagner, U., & Christ, O. (2011). Recent advances in intergroup contact theory. International journal of intercultural relations, 35(3), 271–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.03.001
[66] Brown, R., Vivian, J., & Hewstone, M. (1999). Changing attitudes through intergroup contact: the effects of group membership salience. European journal of social psychology, 29(5–6), 741–764. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199908/09)29:5/6%3C741::AID-EJSP972%3E3.0.CO;2-8
[67] Hewstone, M. E., & Brown, R. E. (1986). Contact and conflict in intergroup encounters. Basil Blackwell.
[68] Sedikides, C., Schopler, J., Insko, C. A., & Insko, C. (2013). Intergroup cognition and intergroup behavior. Psychology Press.
[69] McIntyre, K., Paolini, S., & Hewstone, M. (2016). Changing people’s views of outgroups through individual-to-group generalisation: meta-analytic reviews and theoretical considerations. European review of social psychology, 27(1), 63–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2016.1201893
[70] Harwood, J., Hewstone, M., Paolini, S., & Voci, A. (2005). Grandparent-grandchild contact and attitudes toward older adults: moderator and mediator effects. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 31(3), 393–406. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167204271577
[71] Fox, S., & Giles, H. (1993). Accommodating intergenerational contact: a critique and theoretical model. Journal of aging studies, 7(4), 423–451. https://doi.org/10.1016/0890-4065(93)90009-9
[72] Karpinski, A., & Hilton, J. L. (2001). Attitudes and the implicit association test. Journal of personality and social psychology, 81(5), 774-788. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.81.5.774
[73] Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: the implicit association test. Journal of personality and social psychology, 74(6), 1464–1480. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1464
[74] Tam, T., Hewstone, M., Harwood, J., Voci, A., & Kenworthy, J. (2006). Intergroup contact and grandparent--grandchild communication: the effects of self-disclosure on implicit and explicit biases against older people. Group processes & intergroup relations, 9(3), 413–429. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430206064642
[75] Bengtson, V., Giarrusso, R., Mabry, J. B., & Silverstein, M. (2002). Solidarity, conflict, and ambivalence: complementary or competing perspectives on intergenerational relationships? Journal of marriage and the family, 64, 568–576. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3599924
[76] Hodgson, L. G. (1992). Adult grandchildren and their grandparents: the enduring bond. The international journal of aging and human development, 34(3), 209–225. https://doi.org/10.2190/PU9M-96XD-CFYQ-A8UK
[77] Gangi, K., & Soliz, J. (2016). De-dichotomizing intergroup and interpersonal dynamics: perspectives on communication, identity and relationships. In Advances in intergroup communication (pp. 35–50). Peter Lang Publishing.
[78] Dragojevic, M., & Giles, H. (2014). Language and interpersonal communication: their intergroup dynamics. In Handbook of interpersonal communication (pp. 29–51). De Gruyter Mouton.
[79] Burgoon, J. K., & Hale, J. L. (1988). Nonverbal expectancy violations: model elaboration and application to immediacy behaviors. Communications monographs, 55(1), 58–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637758809376158
[80] Harwood, J., McKee, J., & Lin, M. C. (2000). Younger and older adults’ schematic representations of intergenerational communication. Communications monographs, 67(1), 20–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750009376493
[81] Delia, J. G., & O’Keefe, B. J. (1982). The constructivist approach to communication. In Human communication theory: comparative essays (pp. 147–191). Harper and Row.
[82] Block, C. E. (2000). Dyadic and gender differences in perceptions of the grandparent-grandchild relationship. The international journal of aging and human development, 51(2), 85–104. https://doi.org/10.2190/VKCU-GN6A-27MU-4867
[83] Cho, G. E., Sandel, T. L., Miller, P. J., & Wang, S. (2005). What do grandmothers think about self-esteem? american and taiwanese folk theories revisited. Social development, 14(4), 701–721. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2005.00325.x
[84] Sandel, T. L., Cho, G. E., Miller, P. J., & Wang, S. (2006). What it means to be a grandmother: a cross-cultural study of taiwanese and euro-american grandmothers’ beliefs. The journal of family communication, 6(4), 255–278. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327698jfc0604_2
Metrics
