Question

Discuss how parent’s divorce and remarriage can
affect grand-parents’ relationships with grandchildren?

Answer 1

There are numerous factors affecting the intensity, type and quality of grandparent–grandchild relations and grandparenting. The divorce of the middle generation is one of the most influential ones. Previous studies have documented that, across different European societies, parental divorce generally brings about a weakening of grandparent–grandchild relations, particularly for paternal grandparents.

Because young grandchildren have limited control over their contacts with grandparents, when divorce occurs their relationships are likely to be largely affected by the relation that they have with their parents. Studies of divorce have provided consistent evidence that marital dissolution has negative effects on the quality and intensity of the relationship between children and the non-resident parent—usually the father; additionally, this negative effect worsen when parents re-partner and persists even many decades after the divorce has taken place.

The negative effect of divorce on intergenerational relations extends beyond parent–child relations. A number of studies have documented that grandparents–grandchild relations are less intense when union dissolution occurs in the middle generation.