Grandparents as Significant Persons in the Experience of Academic Youth (Polish-Bulgarian Pilot Study)

Abstract

Goal – The main objective of the study was to diagnose the perception of grandparentsas significant persons in the lives of academic youth. An attempt was also made to determine what environmental factors influenced the declarations of the surveyed students. Research methodology – The study included 219 students from Poland and Bulgaria. A diagnostic survey method was used, employing a questionnaire technique. The research tool was an online Google survey questionnaire (prepared in Polish and Bulgarian, respectively). The basic statistics were calculated using the χ2 test. The statistical assumptions were verified at a significance level of p = 0.05. The correlation coefficient Ckor was also taken into account. Score/results – 1. The results of the research among the Polish group of students illustrate the phenomenon of socialisation shift and prefigurativeness. 2. The relations with grandparents on both the mother’s and paternal sides are definitely positive, although the frequency of such declarations was higher among the Bulgarian students. 3. None of the analysed environmental factors significantly differentiate the perception of grandparents as significant persons in both studied groups. There are certain tendencies that assume a weak relationship between individual variables. Given that the study was a pilot study, the results should not be considered definitive. They should be perceived as certain signals, tendencies that require empirical development and are a contribution to further scientific exploration in terms of intercultural differences in the perception of grandparents as significant persons, how the role of grandparents differs in different countries or social environments. Originality/value – It can be expected that the presented results will fill a research gap in the field of the significance of mutual relations between adult grandchildren and grandparents and will contribute to the revitalisation and strengthening of preventive measures that pose challenges for the social policy and education in the area of strengthening intra-family and intergenerational relations.