The St. Louis Personality and Aging Network (SPAN) study began in 2007 with about 1,600 participants in middle age and now follows 500 as they enter the grandparent years. Researchers in the St. Louis area are studying how grandparents and grandchildren talk and how those conversations have changed over time. The work was led by a graduate student and an adviser and appears in the journal Research in Human Development.
The team asked grandparents to report common conversation topics and to compare their current talks with what they remember discussing with their own grandparents. The study found that this generation of grandparents talks with grandchildren much more than previous generations. Researchers say longer lifespans and wide access to communication technology have made grandparents more accessible, and digital contact was the most common way generations communicated.
Gender differences followed expected patterns: grandmothers spoke more often with grandchildren than grandfathers, especially about jobs, friends, social change and racism. The analysis also found cultural differences. Black grandparents reported discussing race, racism and identity more often than white grandparents, and elders often pass on knowledge about surviving in a world with institutional racism. The researchers plan to collect grandchildren’s perspectives and to study who initiates contact and long-term outcomes.
Difficult words
- participant — a person who takes part in a studyparticipants
- grandparent — the mother or father of someone's parentgrandparents
- grandchild — the child of someone's son or daughtergrandchildren
- lifespan — the length of a person's lifelifespans
- communication technology — tools used to send messages and information
- digital contact — communication by phone, text or internet
- racism — unfair treatment of people because of race
- report — to give information about something
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- How can digital contact change the relationship between a grandparent and a grandchild?
- What topics would you like to discuss with a grandparent, and why?
- Why might grandmothers talk more often with grandchildren than grandfathers?
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