Relationships between children and their grandparents and importance of older generations in lives of todays'families

University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of relationships among contemporary generations. It is devoted to the specific communication and relationships development between today's children and their grandparents. What is the role played by grandparents in lives of their grandchildren? Is the generation gap so powerful to destroy the traditionally strong relationships in families? Our text stresses the importance of an intergenerational socializations influence and its positives for individuals and the whole family system. The article is based on the empirical survey among the 202 respondents in the age group 12–17. The data tried to show that there are differences in relationships in families where the generations are living together and the families with separate living of generations. However, this presumption was not confirmed and our data show that there is no difference in frequency and quality of relationships between both groups of families. The important question is, if the face-to-face communication has been replaced by other means of communication, especially through modern media, or not. The data show the intensity and content of intergenerational meeting in family. It brings some view on the attitudes of young Czech people towards their grandparents. The results show the mostly positive intergenerational relationships and the value of older generations for young people. Interesting are expressions of appreciation of grandmothers and grandfathers from their grandchildren. The relationships to grandparents are mostly influenced by the whole family climate and are closely connected with the parental attitudes toward the older generations.