Using cross-sectional data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (N = 1,231), this study examines the relationship between grandchildren and their grandparents across early adulthood. age is used as a proxy for change during the grandchild's life course and the influence of major life course characteristics is examined. Results indicate that the majority of young adult grandchildren have contact with their grandparents, but the average frequency is low. age differences in contact frequency suggest a decline in grandparent-grandchild contact across early adulthood. Multilevel analyses show that grandchildren's employment status, partner, and parenthood status do not affect contact frequency with grandparents. Rather, the results point at the importance of the parental home for facilitating grandparent-grandchild contact as age-related differences are accounted for by whether grandchildren left the parental home. Furthermore, most of the variance in grandparent-grandchild contact is attributable to differences between family of the mother's and family of the father's side.

The increase would have been higher if the employment rate of grandparents had not risen.

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This study examined whether grandparents perceive adult grandchildren as frequent and important contacts by analyzing network membership. It additionally examined whether this network membership is related to relationship intensity during childhood. Network membership was assessed in 1992 (397 grandparents, 1,594 adult grandchildren) and at the

A brief review of major conceptual notions and empirical findings within the literature on grandparent-grandchild relationships is presented. Four major topics for understanding the intergenerational relationship are addressed: the historical context, the importance of the relationship, changes over individual time, and culture and variation. The focus is on grandparents and grandchildren from Western societies and who are biologically connected. Historical contextIn the popular and academic literature it is frequently presumed that grandparent-grandchild relationships have become more important in Western societies than ever before. This idea is often motivated by greater availability of grandparents due to increased length of life and decreased fertility (e.g., Bengtson, 2001). Due to these demographic changes, the lives of