Danielsbacka Mirkka, Tanskanen Antti O
Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 18, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
Eur J Ageing. 2012 Jul 17;9(4):329-341. doi: 10.1007/s10433-012-0240-x. eCollection 2012 Dec.
In this article, we study grandparental involvement from the viewpoint of evolutionary theory and sociological life course perception. We have used 'the Involved Grandparenting and Child Well-Being 2007' survey, which is the first nationally representative sample of British and Welsh adolescents aged 11-16 ( = 1,488). First, we explore with the descriptive statistics the amount of grandparental involvement reported by adolescents. The result follows the predicted pattern: maternal grandparent is reported to involve in a grandchild's life the most, second maternal grandfather, third paternal grandmother and the last paternal grandfather. Second, we focus more closely on separate grandparents and show with four linear regression models which factors are connected to each grandparent's involvement. Grandchild's age, grandparent's health, grandparent's labour force participation and distance between a grandparent and a grandchild were factors that have similar effects in relation to all grandparents. Marital status mattered only for grandfathers, whereas family structure of a grandchild has opposite effects in relation to maternal and paternal grandparents. Grandchild's sex, grandparent's age, the number of grandchildren and the number of living grandparents all mattered, but only with respect to some grandparents. The study shows that it is advantageous to merge sociological and evolutionary viewpoints when studying a grandparental involvement in a modern society.
在本文中，我们从进化理论和社会学人生历程观念的视角研究祖辈的参与情况。我们使用了“2007年祖辈参与育儿与儿童福祉”调查，该调查是首个针对11至16岁英国和威尔士青少年的具有全国代表性的样本（n = 1488）。首先，我们运用描述性统计方法探究青少年报告的祖辈参与程度。结果符合预测模式：外祖父母被报告参与孙辈生活的程度最高，其次是外祖父，第三是祖母，最后是祖父。其次，我们更深入地关注不同的祖辈，并通过四个线性回归模型展示哪些因素与每位祖辈的参与相关。孙辈的年龄、祖辈的健康状况、祖辈的劳动力参与情况以及祖辈与孙辈之间的距离等因素对所有祖辈的影响相似。婚姻状况仅对外祖父有影响，而孙辈的家庭结构对外祖父母和祖父母的影响相反。孙辈的性别、祖辈的年龄、孙辈的数量以及在世祖辈的数量都有影响，但仅针对部分祖辈。该研究表明，在现代社会研究祖辈参与情况时，将社会学和进化观点结合起来是有益的。
