The impact of acculturation in Mexican American families on the quality of adult grandchild-grandparent relationships

We hypothesize that acculturation of young adult Mexican American grandchildren disrupts their relationships with more culturally traditional grandparents. To test our hypotheses, we use the Study of Three-Generation Mexican American Families, a longitudinal survey of Mexican American adults in linked generations from 375 family lineages. Regression analysis performed on 353 grandchild-grandparent dyads reveals that when adult grandchildren are more acculturated than their grandparents, they report less frequent interaction with them at baseline and declines in affection toward them over time. These patterns are not found when grandparents report their relations with grandchildren. These results provide evidence that differential rates of acculturation across generations in Mexican American families socially and affectually distance grandchildren from their grandparents but not grandparents from their grandchildren.