Study reveals which grandparent has the most impact on children
There is no doubt that the role of a grandparent is truly special.
Getting to know your grandparents is a gift that not everyone is lucky enough to receive.
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You might have grown up knowing only one or two of your grandparents or you might have been able to spend many years with all of them.
No matter how much time you spent with them, it's clear that the relationship between grandchild and grandparent is something different.
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They are notoriously spoiling their grandchildren, showering them with love, sharing valuable lessons, and continuing a legacy from one generation to another.
It might seem like common sense that grandparents play a significant role in their family member's lives, but now there is also a study to prove it.
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Researchers from the University of Turku, Finland, studied data collected in a 2007 survey among 1,566 English and Welsh youths. The youths were between the ages of 11 and 16, and those who lived with their grandparents or did not have at least one living grandparent were excluded from the study.
Our main finding was that investment from maternal grandmothers seemed to be able to protect their grandchild from the negative influence of experiencing multiple adverse early-life experiences.
Adverse childhood experiences are used to describe "traumatic events or difficult circumstances that happened between the ages of 0 to 17".
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This includes abuse, neglect, witnessing violence, living in poverty, having an incarcerated caregiver or one who has substance abuse issues.
Whitney Raglin Bignall, associate clinical director for the Kids Mental Health Foundation, explains that these experiences may “change brain development and impact their body’s response to stress,” “negatively impact their ability to develop healthy relationships,” “impact their ability to pay attention, learn and make decisions” and “lead to poor mental health.”
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This is where grandmothers come in. Preventing adverse childhood experiences or at least blunting the effects in some way can obviously have a more positive effect on this person for many years.
It was found that children with adverse childhood experiences showed less negative effects when growing up if the maternal grandmother had offered them support in some way.
The most interesting part of the study was that it found that this "buffering" effect was only with maternal grandmothers and no other grandparents.
However, that the University of Turku study reveals an average statistical pattern and that in real life there may be numerous examples of grandfathers or paternal grandmothers providing the same care to the same protective effect.
Clearly, this has just reaffirmed that grandparents play such a crucial role in our lives.
If you wanted to learn more about the role of our elders then you can watch this video:
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Main image courtesy of iStock/klebercordeiro