ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Human Developmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1680383
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Power of Relationships in Human Development: From Prenatal Bonding to Attachment Across the LifespanView all 8 articles
Grandparent Support During Childhood is Associated with Emotional Well-being in Emerging Adulthood
Provisionally accepted
- Stanford University, Stanford, United States
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Due to longer life expectancies and age-related socioemotional strengths, grandparents are well-positioned to play roles that contribute positively to their grandchildren's emotional development. Prior research shows that strong emotion regulation and social skills, as well as familial social support serves individuals well during emerging adulthood, a time when emotional well-being is challenged. Given this, and the fact that social and emotional skills are learned in early childhood, we reasoned that grandparental relationships in both early childhood and emerging adulthood may play an important role in the emotional well-being of their grandchildren in emerging adulthood. Based on a survey of 514 emerging adults (ages 18-29), we observed that support they had received from grandparents during early childhood was associated with greater emotional well-being in emerging adulthood. This association persisted even if grandparents had died before their grandchildren reached adulthood and was not moderated by relationship quality with parents or primary caregivers. Support from grandparents in emerging adulthood was also associated with emotional well-being during that time, and this association was complemented by support in childhood. These findings highlight the importance of supportive grandparent relationships for grandchildren, pointing to the possibility that support during the developmental period when children are learning to regulate emotion and navigate social situations is especially protective of emotional well-being in emerging adulthood. This work underscores the importance of considering multiple generations and a life course perspective when examining how familial relationships are associated with well-being.
Keywords: Grandparent-grandchild relationships, Intergenerational relationships, emergingadulthood, social support, emotional well-being
Received: 05 Aug 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Stephenson and Carstensen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jane Stephenson, janestep@stanford.edu
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