Grandfathers - their changing roles and contributions
Abstract
This paper was funded by the New Zealand Families Commission under their “Blue Skies” research scheme and completed by Virginia Wilton and Judith Davey in late 2005.
The paper shows that research on the role, experiences and contribution of grandfathers to families and wider society is seriously lacking. This may be because family research has concentrated on the mother-child dyad, which underestimates the influence of other agents, such as grandparents. Older men in general have been neglected in social science research. If male identity is firmly attached to the paid worker and provider roles then, in retirement and old age, men may indeed become ‘invisible’. Differences in male and female life expectancies are not the only factors, as grandparenthood can begin in mid-life. Perhaps as the baby boom generation move through mid- into later life more attention will be applied to the important roles which older men can play in families and in society.
Authors: Virginia Wilton and Judith Davey - New Zealand Institute for Research on Ageing
