Introduction

In the past, grandparents have often been depicted in rather stereotypical ways by giving them characteristics that are presumably related to old age (for instance, as in children's books showing them with grey hair and wearing glasses, see Sciplino et al, 2010), but these descriptions are far from reflecting the actual socio-demographics of grandparenthood. Currently, however, it seems that the public image of grandparents is changing, as a look at the flourishing market of guidebooks for today's ‘modern’ grandparents might illustrate (see, for example, Kornhaber, 2002; Witkin, 2012). These publications – often authored by scholars who are grandparents themselves – convey the impression that the generation of ‘1968’ or the somewhat younger ‘Baby Boomers’ who are now starting to enter grandparenthood attribute a new meaning to their roles as grandparents. On the one hand, they seem to be highly involved; on the other hand their role definitions are less formal and more individual than in the past, and this makes their roles more complex (Hayslip et al, 2003; Höpflinger et al, 2006).

Changes in grandparenthood are in line with trends regarding older people in many industrialised societies – grandparents are on average healthier and more active compared to the past, and they might also be wealthier due to improved pension schemes and higher savings (see COM, 2005). However, it is difficult to describe the ‘typical’ grandparent: grandparenthood is obviously as multi-faceted as ageing, and grandparents are apparently by no means a homogeneous group (Szinovacz, 1998; see also Motel-Klingebiel et al, 2010b). This diversity might be simply illustrated by considering the age range of potential grandparents. Studies in Europe and the US indicate that many grandparents are in their 50s when their first grandchild is born (see Höpflinger et al, 2006; Sciplino et al, 2010), but there is a large variability in age (see Harper et al, 2010). Svensson-Dianellou et al (2010), for instance, report that their participating grandparents in the Greek sample of the EUROFAMCARE survey ranged in age from as young as 33 (!) to 85 (Median = 63, SD = 10.2), whereas grandchildren's ages in the study ranged from 2 months to 32 years (Median = 8, SD = 7.5).