Abstract:

Grandparents naturally complement the structure and functioning of current families. Their role is becoming increasingly important, and even irreplaceable in some families. Their importance in families is growing, as the number of children who are entrusted to the care of grandparents for various reasons is increasing, e.g. due to increasing employment of mothers, high divorce rates, etc. The interaction and mutual transfer of information between grandparents and grandchildren represents intergenerational learning as a reciprocal process for both generations. The aim of the paper is to define the role of grandparents in the current family, to analyze the peculiarities of their influence on grandchildren and to present research findings on the impact of grandparents on grandchildren from the perspective of grandchildren, parents and grandparents. The paper presents the research focused on grandparents’ influence on current family from children of primary and lower secondary education, as well as parents’, and grandparents’ point of view. Research findings are obtained by questionnaire, semantic differential, and analysis of data is provided by description – in quantity, percentage, and arithmetic mean. The research shows that the age of children determines the relation with their grandparents, e.g. the frequency of their contacts and structure of their common activities. The findings of our research proves that the influence of grandparents in the current family represent large emotional support for pupils and grandparents themselves as well as help for parents with taking care of children.

Keywords:

Grandparents, family, grandchildren, questionnaire.