Granddaughter’s intimacy with maternal grandmothers was significantly higher and with paternal grandfathers significantly lower than with other grandparents than with other grandparents

Which grandparent is more intimate? The effects of the gender of grandchildren. Mengjie Tu, Hongpo Zhang, Yafei Guo, Lin Zhang, Xinhui Wei & Quanlei Yu. Current Psychology, May 25 2021. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-021-01890-6

Abstract: Mothers have almost 100% certainty of their relationship with their offspring, but fathers face paternal uncertainty, which affects not only parental investment but also grandparents’ investment in grandchildren. However, due to Chinese patriarchal culture and preference for sons, grandparents may give their grandchildren different investments by gender. To explore the psychological and behavioral mechanisms of grandparents’ emotional investment in grandchildren from both cultural and evolutionary perspectives, this study collected data from 642 Chinese participants who had impressions of all four grandparents and measured their relationships with their grandparents and other demographic variables. After controlling for the number of grandchildren, participant’s age, region, etc., a significant interaction between the grandchild’s gender and grandparent categories was found. Simple effect analysis and post-hoc analysis showed significant differences in grandsons’ intimacy with maternal grandmothers and grandfathers, but no other grandparents, while granddaughter’s intimacy with maternal grandmothers was significantly higher and with paternal grandfathers significantly lower than with other grandparents, and there were no other significant differences. Those results support human psychology and behavior are jointly influenced by evolution and culture.