Grandparents and their Grandchildren: Communication Accommodation and Grandparents’ Socialization Practices regarding Love and Marriage

• In Event: Communication and Aging Division: Competitive paper I -- Intergenerational communication

Abstract

Using Communication Accommodation Theory, 74 matched dyads of grandchildren and their grandparents were participants in a study regarding perceptions of communication accommodation and grandparents’ socialization practices regarding love and marriage. Questionnaires included inquiries about communication accommodation and ways grandparents socialized including grandparents’ advice-giving, story-telling, expression of affection, and positive and negative behaviors. Overall, grandparents’ socializing their grandchildren about love and marriage was constituted when satisfactory communication accommodation between grandparents and their grandchildren was maintained.

Author

• Naomi Bell O'Neil, Clarion University of Pennsylvania