GRANDPARENTAL IMPACT IN YOUNG-ADULTS RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR CLOSESTGRANDPARENTS - THE ROLE OF RELATIONSHIP STRENGTH AND EMOTIONAL CLOSENESS

This study explored the role that relationship strength, generally, an d emotional closeness, more specifically, may play in delimiting the b ounds of grandparental influence in young adults' lives. One-hundred a nd seventy-one college-aged young adults completed a questionnaire eva luating their relationship with the living grandparent to whom they fe lt most emotionally close or, if they felt close to none of their livi ng grandparents, the grandparent with whom they had the most contact. Participants' perceptions of the strength of this relationship were si gnificantly and positively related to their responses on measures of t he extent to which their closest grandparent influenced various aspect s of their lives (e.g., their beliefs and values, how much their lives would be missing had they never known the grandparent). In addition, participants whose grandparent-grandchiId relationships were emotional ly close endorsed a broader range of alternatives on checklist measure s of perceived relationship impact than did those whose relationships were more emotionally distant.