An Analysis of the Ties between Grandparents and their Adolescent Grandchildren: a reflection on generational transmission

Abstract

This study is based on an exploratory and descriptive study about the intergenerational relations between grandparents and their adolescent grandchildren. It is an effort to understand, from the perspective of the adolescent, the communications, meanings and affections associated to these transgenerational ties. It seeks to identify differences in relations with grandfathers and grandmothers, as well as possible differences in ties between paternal and maternal grandparents. Differences were identified based on a voluntary choice to engage in activities with maternal grandparents. Meanwhile, relations with paternal grandparents seem to reflect activities of an obligatory nature, which are not related to apparent pleasure, but to be an integral part of the adolescents’ identities and their intergenerational and transgenerational ties.