This is the first book to bring together international scholars from around the world and from a wide variety of disciplines, to discover what is known about grandfathers and analyse the impact of close involvement with their grandchildren. Within the context of increased divorce rates, single parent families and healthier, more active elders, grandfathers have come out of the shadows and re-invented themselves in a new caring, nurturing role.
These original studies demonstrate that grandfather involvement is independently and positively associated with higher levels of child well-being in the UK and South Africa, as well as in Arab and Israeli teenagers, and pre-school children in England.
The chapters conclude that societies could benefit from encouraging more grandfathers to become actively involved in their grandchildren’s lives and argues the case for grandparent visitation rights in those countries that currently do not have them.
Table of Content
Part I Overview.- 1. Introduction; Ann Buchanan and Anna Rotkirch.- 2. A new niche? The theory of grandfather involvement; David A Coall, Sonja Hilbrand, Rebecca Sear and Ralph Hertwig.- Part II Grandfathers in their global context.- 3. The social construction of grandfatherhood across time in England and the United States; Ann Buchanan.- 4. Out of the shadows: Are grandfathers defining their own roles in the modern family in Denmark?; George Leeson.- 5. Grandfathers: the parents’ perspective in the United Kingdom; Anne-Marie O’Leary (Netmums) and Ann Buchanan.- 6. Maori Grandfathers in Aotearoa (New Zealand); Judith Davey and Cherryl Smith.- 7. Understanding grandfatherhood in Asia through Chinese grandfathers in Singapore; Leng Leng Thang.- Part III Factors influencing grandfather involvement.- 8. Grandfathers in Australia. The gendered division of grandparent care; Briony Horsfall and Deborah Dempsey.- 9. Good grandfathers have a partner; Knud Knudsen.- 10. Grandfather involvement in Finland: impact of divorce , re-marriage, and widowhood; Mirkka Danielsbacka and Antti O. Tanskanen.- Part IV Impact on grandfathers; 11. Physical health of custodial and caregiving grandfathers in North America; Julie Hicks Patrick, Danielle K. Nadorff, and Valerie K. Blake; Part V Impact on grandchildren 12. Maternal grandfathers and child development in England: impact on the early years; Antti O. Tanskanen and Mirkka Danielsbacka.- 13. Grandfather involvement and adolescent well-being in England and Wales; Jo-Pei-Tan and Ann Buchanan.- 14. Grandfather involvement and adolescent well-being in South Africa; Lauren Wild.- 15. Grandfathering and adolescent adjustment difficulties and pro-social behaviour among Israeli Jewish and Arab adolescents; Shalhevet Attar-Schwartz.- 16. Conclusions: what have we learnt?; Anna Rotkirch and Ann Buchanan
About the author
Ann Buchanan is Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford, UK. She has been researching into child and family well-being, specifically fathering, grandparenting and divorce, for more than twenty years. At Oxford she directed the Centre for Research into Parenting and Children. Her work has an international profile and she was awarded an MBE in 2012.
Anna Rotkirch is Research Director at Väestöliitto, the Family Federation of Finland, studying family ties and childbearing from sociological and evolutionary perspectives. She is Director of the longitudinal study of generational transmissions in Finland which follows the baby boomer generation and their adult children. Previous publications include (with Ann Buchanan, eds.) Low Fertility and Population Decline (Palgrave, 2013).
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