GRANDPARENTING STYLES IN AN URBAN/RURAL BORDERLAND IN NEW ZEALAND

Authors

Sally Keeling, University of Otago, New ZealandFollow

Abstract

This paper on grandparenting styles draws on ethnographic interviews with old-old (80 and older) Anglo-Europeans living in a small-town community in New Zealand. The interviews were collected as part of the social content of a lon tudinal study of the epidemiology of a ng in an urban/rural borderland setting. Analyses indicate that grandparent status and role are both central to and contingent upon how old-old people negotiate and sustain independence and autonomy in the context of family and friendship networks. Diversity is examined using a typology developed from research on American Indian grandparents in an urban/rural situation as a framework, and modifications of the typology to accommodate the increasingly common experience of grandparenting in old-old age are suggested.

Recommended Citation

Keeling, Sally (2008) "GRANDPARENTING STYLES IN AN URBAN/RURAL BORDERLAND IN NEW ZEALAND," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 30: No. 3, Article 5.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol30/iss3/5