c. 1998 Religion News Service
UNDATED _ Nonreligious grandparents may have close relationships with their grandchildren but religiously active grandparents have higher levels of involvement with the youngsters, according to a new study.
Sociologists at Pennsylvania State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say their recent study found religiously active grandparents had higher levels of contact with and participated more in the lives of their grandchildren as caregivers, teachers, mentors and friends.
The study _ described as the most comprehensive of its type _ examined 500 white grandparents, ages 51 to 92, who live in rural Iowa and have teen-aged grandchildren. A majority of participants were middle- or working-class Protestants _ primarily Methodists and Lutherans _ and a smaller number were Catholics.”Not only were the religious grandparents involved with their grandchildren, but they were involved in other family rituals and had closer family ties overall,”said Valarie King, a Penn State assistant professor of sociology.
The study measured”religiousness”by the number of times people attended church, led services, taught Sunday school, attended religion classes, prayed or listened to religious broadcasts.”Involvement”was measured by such things as frequency of contacts,”quality”of relationships, participation in various activities together, friendship and mentoring and discussing personal problems.
Among the study’s other findings:
_ While 35 percent of nonreligious grandparents had cared for a sick grandchild, 50 percent of religious grandparents had watched a grandchild when the youngster was ill.
_ Sixty percent of nonreligious grandparents taught their grandchildren skills, while 80 percent of the religious respondents had shared skills with their grandchildren.”It’s not that nonreligious grandparents do not have good ties to grandchildren; it’s that religious grandparents had higher levels of involvement,”King said.
At the same time, King said the data does not reveal what it is about religious observance that motivates grandparents’ involvement.
Researchers said their study was motivated in part by the changing demographics that influence grandparent/grandchild relationships.
She said that while most children today have contact with grandparents, not all grandparents are actively involved with their grandchildren.”There are more grandparents around today because of the decline in mortality, and they’re in better health, so there are more opportunities for children to know their grandparents,”said King.”But at the same time there are often greater geographical distances between grandchildren and grandparents.” Still, said Glen H. Older, co-author of the study and a professor of sociology at Chapel Hill,”the number of grandparents raising their own grandchildren is growing rapidly, especially in the nation’s inner cities, where girls may be too young to raise children by themselves.”In many cases, grandparents provide an important safety net for children and help them make the transition to adulthood by offering support and encouragement,”Older said.
The study is part of a long term project examining a range of factors that contribute to grandparents’ roles in the family, including health, education and economic levels.
Earlier studies have showed that religious parents and their children had closer relationships and that church attendance among adults in general is linked to better health and life satisfaction.
DEA END LANCASTER
