Comparing U.S. and French grandparent-grandchild relationships

Abstract

ABSTRACT In response to the many calls for the advancement of cross-cultural communication research, we compared U.S. and French grandchildren’s received grandparental affection and perceptions of their grandparents as ideal (i.e., grandparent attributes and behaviors that grandchildren believe characterize a desirable grandparent). A total of 456 young adult grandchildren from the U.S. (n = 171) and France (n = 285) completed the Grandchildren’s Received Affection Scale (GRAS) and the Ideal Grandparent Scale (IGS) in reference to their relationships with a specific grandparent. Results of a MANOVA and an independent samples t-test indicated that, compared to French grandchildren, U.S. grandchildren scored higher on both the GRAS and the IGS. These findings are discussed in reference to how these differences may impact grandchildren and grandparents.