Invisible family role without a script?
Great-grandparenthood is a family role that is increasingly common biologically – growing life expectancy means that a fourth generation within the family is becoming a common part of family life. Yet it remains a role to which society has so far paid little attention. The research of Zuzana Talašová from the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, and the Faculty of Business and Economics, Mendel University, focuses precisely on how great-grandparents experience this role, how they construct it in their life narratives, and what place family and society afford them.
Talašová documents what she calls the relational invisibility of great-grandparenthood: a role that is biologically present but narratively quiet. On the visual life timelines created by respondents, great-grandparenthood is almost entirely absent. Middle age is richly documented in these narratives – later life appears empty, as though nothing of identity significance takes place there anymore.
The research also reveals pronounced gender differences: while women structure their life stories around care and family continuity, men anchor their identity in work, professional achievements, and spatial rootedness.
From care to rituals
As age advances, the ways in which great-grandparents maintain family bonds change. Active everyday care recedes into the background, replaced by rituals: shared meals, embraces, returns to the family home. It is through these seemingly small gestures that great-grandparents remain a symbolic link between generations.
Physical frailty often serves as a justification for this transition into a more passive role. The research shows that great-grandparents themselves internalise the norm of "appropriate ageing" – withdrawal from active involvement is narratively constructed as a morally correct and natural choice, rather than as a loss.
Ambivalent autonomy
The paradox of great-grandparenthood lies in what Talašová terms ambivalent autonomy: freedom from obligation coexists with symbolic marginality. Great-grandparents are present and loved within the family, yet they are frequently excluded from decision-making – whether regarding child-rearing, the transmission of values, or religious faith. Their voice and life experience remain unheard within family dynamics, a phenomenon Talašová connects to the broader issue of cultural ageism: the label "great-grandparent" is too often associated with frailty and decline rather than wisdom or continuity.
The findings call for a reconsideration of how society approaches very old age. The oldest generation contributes morally and emotionally – even when it is no longer actively providing care. A more inclusive approach should name and value these contributions.
The research was presented at the British Sociological Association (BSA) conference in Manchester. Zuzana Talašová is affiliated with the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, and the Faculty of Business and Economics, Mendel University.
