Grandchildhood: Relations, Meanings, and Practices

This chapter establishes the book’s conceptual and methodological foundation, offering a comprehensive overview of research on grandchildhood and grandchild-grandparent relationships since the 1940s. It highlights the importance of understanding grandchildren within the broader context of family relationships, with a focus on how the middle generation mediates these cross-generational ties. Central to this chapter is the introduction of ‘grandchild practices’, a key concept drawn from the practice approach in family studies (Morgan, Family Connections: An Introduction to Family Studies. Cambridge: Polity, 1996, Rethinking Family Practices. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). These practices are characterized as active, everyday, fluid, and relational actions that grandchildren engage in, shaping their relationships with grandparents. The chapter situates these grandchild practices within societal norms and expectations surrounding grandchildhood and grandparenthood, which often give rise to intergenerational ambivalence (Lüscher and Pillemer, Intergenerational Ambivalence: A New Approach to the Study of Parent–Child Relations in Later Life. Journal of Marriage and the Family 60 (2): 413–425. https://doi.org/10.2307/353858 , 1998; Connidis and McMullin, Sociological Ambivalence and Family Ties: A Critical Perspective. Journal of Marriage and the Family 64 (3): 558–567. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2002.00558.x , 2002). Emphasizing the mutuality and interdependencies between grandchildhood and grandparenthood (Kahana et al. Grandparents-grandchild Relationships: A Proposed mutuality Model with a Focus on Young Children and Adolescents. In Grandparenting: Influences on the Dynamics of Family Relationships, ed. Bert Hayslip and Christine A. Fruhauf, 61–80. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2019), as well as the relational nature of grandchildhood (Eldén et al. Grandchildhood: Care and Relationality in Narratives of Three Generations in Sweden. Childhood 31(1), 120–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682231216630 , 2024), this chapter provides a crucial lens for understanding the dynamic and evolving nature of these family connections.