Benefits of the Long-Term Grand Relationship

Grandparents and older grandchildren who have good relationships with each other are less likely to suffer from depression, according to a study presented at the American Sociological Associations 108th annual meeting.
Researchers from Boston College analyzed data from a long-term study called the Longitudinal Study of Generations. The study is a survey of US families consisting of three or four generations, compiled in seven sets of data between 1985 and 2004.
The researchers analyzed 376 grandparents and 340 grandchildren. The average grandparent was born in 1917, making them 77 years old at the midpoint of the study in 1994, while the average grandchild was born in 1963, making them 31 years old.
Sara Moorman, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and the Institute of Aging at Boston College, said of the results:

"We found that an emotionally close grandparent-adult grandchild relationship was associated with fewer symptoms of depression for both generations.
The greater emotional support grandparents and adult grandchildren received from one another, the better their psychological health."

Source: MedicalNewsToday.com