Localization Empirical Study Of Grandparents-and-grandchildren Relationship In The Context Of Grandparental Investment

"Grandparents-and-grandchildren relationship" refers to the immediate familyrelationship between grandparents and grandchildren. In recent decades, thechange of China's population and family structure makes grandparents-and-grandchildren relationship become the most important relationship and the mostcommon topic to talk in the family in addition to the parent-child relationship. As aresult, the formation of an independent systematical Grandparents-and-grandchildrenrelationship study area is the needs of the times. Grandparental investment is theperspective of evolutionary psychology research on Grandparents-and-grandchildrenrelationship. It views grandparental investment as a reproductive strategy andinvestigates the biological role of human in the grandparents-and-grandchildrenrelationship.Grandparental investment as a research field of evolutionary psychology hasaccumulated a large number of empirical studies and formed a relatively systematictheoretical system. But the existing research is mainly carried out in the Westerncultural context. The research from Eastern culture, especially the localizationcontext, is relatively scarce. Cross-cultural issues in evolutionary psychologytheory is a difficult question that psychologist have to face. Thus getting empiricalresearch data from the context of localization has important significance forverifying or amending of the existing grandparental investment theory andestablishing the grandparents-and-grandchildren relationship as an independentresearch area.Based on the era and condition of China, we launched the localization empiricalstudy of grandparents-and-grandchildren relationship in the context of grandparentalinvestment. This study has the theoretical value for the cross-cultural study and the practical significance for the establishment of grandparents-and-grandchildrenrelationship as an independent study area. In this study, we used questionnaires tocollect information of412participants from Jilin, Beijing and Xi'an whose age isbetween16-42years old. We investigated how much material support, emotionalsupport and raising support the participants were given by their grandparents before7years old in addition to the demographic variables and the distance betweengrandparents and children. In this study we draw the following conclusion:First, material support, emotional support and raising support show differentpatterns as different aspects of grandparental investment.Second the patriarchal concept of paternal grandparents affects every aspects ofgrandparental investment as a cultural identity.Third patriarchal-centered living on localization context masks the differencebetween maternal and paternal grandparents caused by evolution.Last, the pattern of grandparental investment is shaped by both evolution andculture.