From generation to generation: Grandmothers’ values in the relationships with their children and adolescent grandchildren

Values, as guiding principles in life, play a significant role in family relationships and transmission processes. Assuming that the family field is multigenerational, the current study focuses on the link between grandmothers’ value priorities and their perception of the relationship quality (conflict and satisfaction) with their adult sons/daughters and, through this, with their adolescent grandsons/granddaughters. At this purpose, 251 grandmothers (Mage= 74.36, SD = 6.83), living in the North of Italy, were involved in the study, and asked to fill in a self-report questionnaire. The results showed a direct association between grandmothers' values and the conflict with the adult son/daughter, positive for openness to change and self-enhancement and negative for conservation and self-transcendence, and an indirect association in the case of conflict with the grandson/granddaughter, mediated by the quality of the relationship with the son/daughter.