RESEARCH ARTICLE


Grandparents - Grandchildren Relationship in Iran, 2017



Yadollah Abolfathi Momtaz1, Mahboube Mahdi Vidouje1, *, Mahshid Foroughan1, Robab Sahaf1, Reza Laripour2
1 Iranian Research Center on Aging, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing (MyAgeing), Universiti Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia
2 Iran University of Medical Sciences, Medical Education Research Center, Tehran, Iran


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Creative Commons License
© 2018 Momtaz et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Iranian Research Center on Aging, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran; E-mail: mahmahdi1383@gmail.com


Abstract

Introduction:

With the continuing growth of aged populations, it is imperative to find ways to maintain and improve the quality of life in old age. It has been documented that grandparents-grandchildren relationship is significantly contributed to quality of life of older adults. This study was conducted to identify the status and associated factors of grandparents-grandchildren relationship in a sample of Iran.

Methods:

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 377 community dwelling older adults 60 years and over living in Kashan, Iran. A multistage proportional random sampling technique was applied to obtain the sample. The grandparent -grandchildren relationship was measured by a researcher-developed 16-item scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 23 and AMOS 23.

Results:

The mean age of the respondents was 70.42(SD = 8.20) years. About 62% of the respondents were female and 60.7% were married. The average score of grandparents-grandchild relationship was 67.60(SD = 12.47). The multiple linear regression analysis revealed a significant model (F (11, 365) = 19.05, P < 0.001), where information communication technology of grandparents, geographical distance between grandparents and grandchildren, and the quality of relationship between grandparents and parents of grandchildren were the most important predictors of the grandparents-grandchildren relationship.

Conclusion:

The findings from the current study showed that status of grandparents-grandchildren relationship is moderate to high and influenced by some factors. It is, therefore, suggested that policymakers pay more attention to strengthening grandparent-grandchild relationship by providing educational programs for families and encouraging the elderly to learn and use information communication technology.

Keywords: Aged, Grandparent-grandchild relationship, Iran, Aging, Psychological, Sociodemographic.