Grandparent nurturance in three-generational families and young children's attachment to their teen mothers.

Abstract

Types of grandparent nurturance and their influence on relationships between grandchild security of attachment and avoidance were examined in a sample of 50 three-generational working-class families, which included a teen daughter and her one- or two-year old baby. The types of nurturance included reinforcement, sensitivity, and consultation. Overall the findings indicated that grandmothers and grandfathers showed equal amounts of nurturance, and of reinforcing and consulting behaviors, but grandfathers showed more sensitivity in their interactions with one-year old grandchildren. With respect to grandchild age, grandparents were more reinforcing in their interactions with one-year olds and more sensitive and consulting with two-year olds. Grandparent total nurturance, reinforcement, and consultation did not relate to security of attachment or avoidance of the child to the teen mother. However, grandfather sensitivity was negatively related to attachment and grandmother sensitivity was related to avoidance. The results suggest that differences displayed in grandparent sensitivity reflect variation in their caretaking roles. The finding of negative relationships in grandparent sensitivity and grandchild attachment and avoidance suggests either that some grandparent behaviors, sensitivity in particular, are problematic to the child's relationship to his/her mother, or that a child with an insecure attachment relationship with his/her mother elicits more sensitive behavior from grandparents. However, the findings need to be considered in light of the fact that the study only examined sensitive behaviors in a play setting. Also the measure was uni-directional; it failed to tap reciprocality. These findings shed light on grandparenting behaviors in three-generational families.