Young Adults' Reactions to Grandparent Painful Self-Disclosure: The Influence of Grandparent Sex and Overall Motivations for Communication

Abstract

This study examined young adult grandchildren's self-reports about the influence of grandparent sex on perceived grandparent painful self-disclosure (PSD) as well as their reactions to grandparent dyad PSD. Perceived grandmother and grandfather motivations for overall communication were assessed as mediators of young adult grandchildren's discomfort with grandparent dyad PSD. Findings show that participants perceived PSD more in their interactions with their maternal grandmothers compared to their maternal grandfathers. These young adult grandchildren were less likely to report discomfort if they perceived grandparents to be communicating overall for the purposes of positive affect, or identity, but more likely to feel discomfort if they perceived grandparents to be communicating for the purpose of control.

Accommodating Translational Research

“…Not only do they seem to express negative stereotypes about today's youth, but they do not sufficiently attend to, and neither are they willing apparently to appreciate, the needs and messages of their younger counterparts (Giles & Williams, 1994). At the same time, elders are heard to be overly verbose about the ''good old days'' yet also talk excessively about painful past events, such as illnesses and bereavements (Barker, 2007). Studies show that such disclosures are very difficult for recipients to manage*one might refer to them as ''communicative grenades''* and are attributed by younger people to decrements in cognitive and communicative functioning .…”

Communicative Responses to the Painful Self-Disclosures of Familial and Non-Familial Older Adults

“…Appropriateness and affiliativeness are the hallmarks of accommodation, which can be accomplished in various ways, such as matching a fellow interactant's speech rate, adjusting paralanguage to ease their understanding, or self-disclosure (Coupland, 2010). Whereas young adults may over-accommodate during cross-generational talk by going beyond the adaptations needed by older persons, seniors are more apt to under-accommodate young adults by being insensitive to their conversational preferences via dogmatism, disapproval, inattentiveness, or PSD (Barker, 2007;Williams & Giles, 1996).…”

Gay Men at Midlife

“…, as well as the problematic nature of intergenerational communication (Barker, 2007;Edwards & Giles, 1998;Nussbaum & Coupland, 1995). Less research, however, has taken an intergroup communication perspective on these topics (Giles, Khajavy, & Choi, 2012;Giles, McCann, Ota, & Noels, 2002;Hummert, 2012).…”