Jo-Pei Tan

Filling the Parenting Gap? Grandparent Involvement With U.K. Adolescents

With people living longer and more mothers working, there is some evidence that grandparents are more involved in rearing the next generation. Although there is research in the United Kingdom on kinship care, there is no national research on the extent of grandparent involvement from the perspective of young people. This, the first national survey of 1,478 adolescents in England and Wales, demonstrates the very considerable amount of informal care given by grandparents to adolescents.The findings showed that factors in the wider ecology of children, their parents, grandparents, and the community influenced grandparent—grandchild involvement. In particular, more regular contact and stronger grandparent/grandchild closeness, greater parental encouragement to visit grandparents, better health in grandparents, and less deprivation in the community were significantly associated with more active grandparent involvement. The article concludes that because grandparents may be filling the parenting gap for hard-working parents, there is a case for greater recognition of their role as family supporters.

Adverse life events, area socio-economic disadvantage, and adolescent psychopathology: The role of closeness to grandparents in moderating the effect of contextual stress

The study, using data from 801 11–16-year-olds clustered in 68 schools across England and Wales, tested whether closeness to grandparents moderates the association between contextual stress and adolescent psychopathology and prosocial behavior, measured with the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ). Contextual stress was measured at both school area level (assessed with the index of multiple deprivation) and child level (assessed, as life stress, with the number of proximal and distal adverse life events experienced). At baseline, area stress (multiple deprivation) was unrelated to psychopathology (SDQ), and although both proximal (during the last 12 months) and distal (before the last 12 months) life stress was associated with broad and specific child psychopathology, the association with proximal life stress was stronger. Closeness to the most significant grandparent moderated both the effect of proximal life stress on hyperactivity and broad psychopathology, and the effect of the interaction between distal and proximal life stress on broad and externalizing psychopathology. These findings suggest that the role of grandparents deserves further attention in future investigations of the development of resilience in youth.

Understanding computer-mediated communication attributes and life satisfaction from the perspectives of uses and gratifications and self-determination

Need satisfaction in online friendships predicted adolescent life satisfaction.CMC attributes directly predicted need satisfaction in online friendships.CMC attributes also indirectly predicted need satisfaction in online friendships.Media orientations predicted need satisfaction in online friendships.Online communication and online self-disclosure were mediators. Based on the theories of uses and gratifications, and self-determination, we examined a model linking computer-mediated communication (CMC) attributes to psychological need satisfaction in online friendships and to life satisfaction in a sample of school-aged adolescents (N=1572). Our findings suggest direct links between media orientations (i.e., attitude toward online relationship formation and Internet habit strength) and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships. We also reported direct links between online communication, online self-disclosure and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships, and also a direct link between psychological need satisfaction in online friendships and life satisfaction. Despite these direct links, online communication and online self-disclosure significantly mediated the link between attitude toward online relationship formation and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships. In this pattern of links, both mediators were equally strong. Online communication and online self-disclosure also significantly mediated the link between Internet habit strength and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships. For this pattern of links, both mediators differed significantly in strength. Online communication emerged as a stronger mediator than online self-disclosure. Our findings suggest that CMC attributes may serve as a new social milieu for adolescent subjective well-being.

Do grandparents matter? Intergenerational relationships between the closest grandparents and Malaysian adolescents

ABSTRACT A close connection with a grandparent can interact with an adolescent’s experience of life stressors to increase or decrease their risk for negative outcomes. Traditional filial values may be linked to closer grandparent–grandchildren interactions in Asian cultures, such as Malaysia. This study examined how grandparental involvement and emotional closeness moderated the associations between life stressors and adjustment difficulties among adolescents in Malaysia (n = 643 adolescents). Hierarchical regression analysis showed that greater proximal and distal life stressors were associated with more adjustment difficulties of adolescents. Moreover, emotional closeness with the closest grandparents moderated the association between adolescent distal adversities and adjustment difficulties. Specifically, the contribution of accumulative stress from adverse life events on the risk of adjustment difficulties among adolescents may be alleviated when adolescents perceived high levels of emotional ties with the closest grandparents. These findings suggest that grandparents can directly relate to grandchildren’s adjustment through engaging emotional relationships. Our study shed lights on the interpretation of the contribution of grandparents to adolescent outcomes and the development of adolescents’ resilience in the face of adversity within the Malaysian cultural context.

Links Between Grandfather Involvement and Adolescent Well-Being in England and Wales

This chapter draws on an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) study which used a representative sample of over 1500 young people (aged 11 to 16) who completed a questionnaire on their relationship with their grandparents. In addition, thirty young people were also interviewed in depth. The original study did not explore the association between grandfather involvement per se and adolescent well-being. For this chapter, the statistical data were reanalysed in 2014 to assess whether there were links, independent of grandmothers, of significant associations between grandfather involvement and child well-being.