I N n. J. AGING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, VOI. 4q3) iQi-216,1999 THE IMPACT OF PARENTAL SEPARATION/DIVORCE ON GRANDPARENT-GRANDCHILD RELATIONSHIPS *

Eighty-six members of the Grandparents ’ Federation in Britain returned ques-tionnaires about changes in contact with their grandchildren following paren-tal divorce; ten grandparents were also interviewed to obtain more contextual information and measures of health and coping strategies. Three question-naire measures of the grandparent-grandchild relationship, proximity, contact frequency, and emotional involvement, were interrelated and a significant decrease was reported after parental divorce. There were no signiticant dif-ferences on these measures between grandparents all of whose grandchildren were affected by parental divorce, and grandparents for whom only some grandchildren were so affected; but the latter group did show a greater decline in emotional involvement and also had less recourse to legal action to sustain contact. With grandchildren affected by parental divorce, proximity to grandparents was not significantly less than for grandchildren not so affected, but contact and emotional involvement were significantly less. Many grand-parents reported emotional and physical health problems related to the loss of contact. Results are discussed in terms of the extent to which grandparents are victims of the divorce situation, or agents involved in cross-generational family dysfunction; the victim model appears to get more support from our data. Recommendations are made for further research, as well as counseling to help move grandparents through the grief process and to a better quality of life. *We are grateful to the Grandparents ’ Federation in Britain for their encouragement in this stud