AshEse Journal Of Family and Lifestyle
Vol. 1(1), pp. 001-004, March, 2015
© 2015 AshEse Visionary Limited
Full Length Research
Elaine Pedreira Rabinovich*, Rosa Maria da Motta Azambuja and Lúcia Vaz de Campos Moreira
Universidade Católica do Salvador, Brazil.
*Corresponding author. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Tel: 55-11-32554509.
Received 23 January, 2015; Accepted 2 March, 2015
Grandparents have been subject of studies for already some time, but as people are getting older, great-grandparents become emerged at children life horizons. This exploratory study is part of a bigger one where children were asked about the meaning of their family members, including their great-grandparents. Fifty children, aged 6 to 12 years old, from medium and low socio-educational class answered a question about: what is a great-grandmother? What is a great-grandfather? 15 (30%) children answered about what it was to be a great-grandmother and 7 (14%) about great-grand-father. The other answers were: “I don’t know/not questioned” (31%) and “I don’t have” (47%). The main results were: more responses about great-grandmothers than about great-grandfather; more answerered “I don’t know” and “I don’t have” to great-grand-fathers. As a qualitative description, children said: “they are the same as grandparents but older, need more help and they are going to die sooner”. One general conclusion is that children’s experience of living with more generations may give them a different approach to time. Another conclusion is that some great-grandparents may already be in the traditional place of grandparent, for instance, giving support and caring. The main conclusion points to the need of studying the fourth generation, and even the fifth generation, in relation to children lives.
Key words:Great-grandfather, great-grandmother, children.