Accommodation and nonaccommodation as predictors of instrumental caregiving intentions and expectations in grandparent-grandchild relationships

Abstract

This dyadic study examined how grandparents’ and grandchildren’s perceptions of receiving accommodation, overaccommodation, and underaccommodation were indirectly associated with grandchildren’s intentions to provide instrumental care and grandparents’ expectations that they would receive instrumental care, via both parties’ communication satisfaction. For grandchildren, a series of indirect associations emerged: Grandchildren’s perceptions of receiving accommodation positively predicted grandchildren’s communication satisfaction; grandchildren’s perceptions of receiving overaccommodation and underaccommodation negatively predicted grandchildren’s communication satisfaction. Grandchildren’s communication satisfaction then positively predicted grandchildren’s intentions to provide instrumental care. In contrast, no indirect associations emerged involving the grandparent versions of the variables. Rather, for grandparents, a direct association was observed: Grandparents’ perceptions of receiving accommodation directly and positively predicted grandparents’ expectations to receive instrumental care. This discrepancy in results (indirect associations for grandchildren, a direct association for grandparents) is discussed in terms of the mediating mechanism phase of communication accommodation theory scholarship.