Intergenerational solidarity and the changing relationship of grandparents-grandchildren in contemporary Lithuania

Abstract

The World‘s Social Work Day in 2025 was dedicated to commemorating the strengthening of intergenerational solidarity for enduring wellbeing. It emphasized the importance of care and respect across generations to build strong and sustainable communities, and the exchange of intergenerational wisdom for a better future. This article analyzes the dynamics of grandparents-grandchild relationship and the changes it is facing within the network society. Based on research findings, this article proposes ways for social work practitioners to foster greater inclusion for older adults in their interactions with both their own grandchildren and other members of younger generations. These measures are relevant for improving the emotional and psychological well-being of older adults and reducing their social isolation. The theoretical part covers the gradual transformation of the extended family and the role of the grandparents in it, the main psycho-social models which explain the dynamics of the relationship, and the impact of emerging communication technologies on the grandparent-grandchildren communication. The empirical data of this study was collected using quantitative methodology. The chosen method was an online questionnaire survey. Only people aged 18 or older with the status of a grandchild who had at least one living grandparent at the time of the study were eligible to participate in the questionnaire. The size of the research sample is 125 respondents. This work utilized descriptive statistics as the hypotheses about grandparents-grandchildren relationship in Lithuania were tested using correlational analysis. The research findings suggest that the more individualistic grandchildren are, the more likely they are to choose to voluntarily interact with their grandparents. In addition, grandchildren tend to overaccommodate their communication with grandparents who have various health issues, such as mobility, motor and hearing impairments, and information processing or language use disorders. Furthermore, social media is still not actively used by grandparents for communication purposes with grandchildren, and the decline of the grandparents-grandchildren relationship might be due to poor digital and media literacy skills of grandparents. One of the most important findings shows that how grandchildren rate digital media skills of the grandparents is directly related to the choice of media that grandchildren use for communication with them. The worse the grandchildren rate their grandparents’ skills to be, the less often they will choose lean forms of media for intergenerational communication. No meaningful link between the geographical distance separating grandparents and grandchildren, and the frequency of their communication was found. Possible practical social work interventions to all these struggles were suggested in the paper. More awareness should be brought to the detriments of over-accommodative communication on the mental and physical health of the elderly. Establishing more telephone lines through which older people could communicate with younger generations regularly could reduce the health problems caused by loneliness. The younger generations would be more inclined to maintain their relationships with the older generations if the latter had more advanced digital and media literacy skills.