Young Adults' Reactions to Grandparent Painful Self-Disclosure: The Influence of Grandparent Sex and Overall Motivations for Communication

The Role of Grandchildren's Own Age-Related Communication and Accommodation From Grandparents in Predicting Grandchildren's Well-Being

This study examined how the accommodative environments experienced from grandparents and grandchildren's own age-related communication are indirectly associated with grandchildren's life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and loneliness, via grandchildren's self-efficacy with respect to aging. The communication experienced from grandparents was classified as accommodative, ambivalent, and mixed-accommodative chatter. Grandchildren were classified into engaged, disengaged, bantering, and disengaged-joking profiles based on their own age-related communication. Grandchildren who experienced accommodative chatter were likely to be engaged and disengaged communicators about age-related issues; grandchildren who experienced mixed-accommodative chatter were likely to be bantering communicators about age-related issues. Relative to engaged communicators, disengaged-joking communicators demonstrated lower life satisfaction, more depressive symptoms, and greater loneliness, via lower self-efficacy with respect to aging. Patterns of accommodation and nonaccommodation from grandparents may place grandchildren on specific trajectories for communicating about age, and grandchildren's own communication may be consequential for well-being even at relatively young periods of the life span.

Grandchildren’s Perceptions of Grandparents’ Use of Relational Maintenance Behaviors

The purposes of this study were to examine (a) grandchildren’s perceptions of the extent to which their grandparents’ use relational maintenance behaviors; (b) grandchildren’s perceived differences in grandparents’ use of relational maintenance behaviors as functions of grandparent sex, grandchild sex, and grandparent–grandchild (GP-GC) family lineage; and (c) the relationships between grandchildren’s perceptions of their grandparents’ use of relational maintenance behaviors and the grandchildren’s self-reported GP-GC relational characteristics. Young adult grandchildren ( N = 209) completed a questionnaire in reference to a specific GP-GC relationship. Descriptive statistics indicated that grandparents use the seven relational maintenance behaviors (i.e., advice, assurances, conflict management, networks, openness, positivity, and tasks) to different degrees. However, the multivariate analyses of variance did not indicate any significant effects for grandparent and grandchild sex or GP-GC family lineage on perceived grandparental use of relational maintenance behaviors. Conversely, Pearson correlations provided support for the hypothesized positive relationships between grandchildren’s perceptions of their grandparents’ use of relational maintenance behaviors and the grandchildren’s self-reported GP-GC relational characteristics.

Communicative responses to the painful self-disclosures of familial and non-familial older adults

Data from 365 college students were used to assess young adults' communicative responses to older persons' painful self-disclosures (PSDs). Coupland, Coupland, and Giles (1991) proposed that recipients of PSD may respond to such disclosures via a variety of"next moves." These responses may broadly be considered to reflect forms of pro-social engagement, passive disengagement, and active disengagement. We investigated whether young adults' tendency to use certain responses to PSD were influenced by their affective reactions to PSD, their communicative background and characteristics, and the sociorelational context of the encounter in which PSD occurred. Results are discussed with respect to their implications for intergenerational interaction, and interpreted through the lens of communication accommodation theory.

The dark side of family communication: a communication model of elder abuse and neglect

To further address the potential factors that lead up to elder abuse in domestic settings, this paper proposes a model from a communication approach to explain dyadic influences between the family caregiver and the elderly care receiver that give rise to the abuse. That is, dysfunctional communication between the caregivers and care receivers may, therefore, increase the likelihood of elder abuse. Grounded in Bugental and her colleagues' work (1993, 1999, 2002) on child abuse, we propose a power-oriented communication model based, in part, on research in the fields of family violence and intergenerational communication to explain the likelihood of occurrence of elder abuse in family caregiving situations. We argue that certain risk factors pertaining to caregivers' characteristics--those who perceive high stress in caregiving, have mental health issues, have a history of substance abuse, and/or display verbal aggressiveness--may be more likely to attribute considerable power to those elderly under their custodianship. At the same time, such caregivers tend to feel powerless and experience loss of control when interacting with their elderly counterparts. When an elderly care receiver displays noncompliant behaviors, caregivers may be prone to employ abusive behaviors (in our model, it refers to physical abuse, verbal abuse, or communication neglect) to seek such compliance. Consequences of such abuse may result in lower self-esteem or lower confidence in one's ability to manage his/her life. It is suggested that researchers and practitioners investigate both parties' interactions closely and the role of elderly care receivers in order to detect, intervene, and prevent elder abuse.