(Image source from: })

A survey has revealed that children are happier if grandparents are involved in their upbringing. The survey was conducted by Oxford University along with the Institute of Education in London.

The research that showed that grandparents make grandchildren happier was based on results from questionnaires carried out on 1,596 children across England and Wales between age groups of 11 and 16. Also interviews are conducted with 40 children belonging to range of backgrounds by the researchers.

The Oxford study has revealed that adolescents’ relationship with grandparents, show how grandparents involved in daily lives of grandchildren contribute to their well being.

It was found that more time can be provided by grandparents compared to working parents to provide support and advice to children. This particularly observed in case of grandparents serving in any type of caregiving ability.

Study on relation between children and grandparents

Oxford University, director of the Centre for Research into Parenting and Children in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Professor and principal investigator, Ann Buchanan said, “We were surprised by the huge amount of informal caring that the grandparents were doing and how in some cases they were filling the parenting gap for hard-working parents.”

“Most adolescents really welcomed this relationship. What was especially interesting was the links we found between ‘involved grandparents’ and adolescent well-being. Closeness was not enough: Only grandparents who got stuck in and did things with their grandchildren had this positive impact on their grandchildren,” Buchanan added.

-Sumana