The importance of the grandparent role—A class specific phenomenon? Evidence from Germany Katharina Mahne *, Andreas Motel-Klingebiel German Centre of Gerontology, Manfred-von-Richthofen-Str. 2, 12101 Berlin, Germany 1. Introduction There is a constantly growing literature on grandparent- hood. However, comparatively little is known about the attitudinal and symbolic aspects of the grandparent role (Szinovacz, 1998; Thiele & Whelan, 2006; Werner, Low- enstein, & Katz, 1998). Moreover, the classics on the meaning of grandparenthood (Kivnick, 1982; Neugarten & Weinstein, 1964; Robertson, 1977) originated several decades ago and may well have little validity for today’s society. So far, the grandparent role has been described as generally important and rewarding by ageing individuals (e.g. Clarke & Roberts, 2004). However, the opportunities to experience the grandparent role are changing. On the one hand, due to the increasing proportion of childless- ness in following cohorts (Frejka & Sobotka, 2008), fewer parents undergo the transition to grandparenthood (Uhlenberg & Cheuk, 2010). On the other hand – once grandchildren exist – events and conditions such as divorce or geographical distance between family mem- bers increasingly affect the possibilities to enact the grandparent role (e.g. King, 2003; Uhlenberg & Hammill, 1998). Within the context of our study, it is important to point out that both factors of changing opportunities for Advances in Life Course Research 17 (2012) 145–155 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 5 January 2011 Received in revised form 25 June 2012 Accepted 26 June 2012 Keywords: Grandparenthood Grandparent role Importance Ageing German Ageing Survey A B S T R A C T In the light of changing opportunity structures for the experience of grandparenthood, we address older parents’ attitudes towards the grandparent role. Our focus is on the interrelationship between the importance of the grandparent role and social class. The likelihood of the transition to grandparenthood and the opportunities to enact the grandparent role clearly differ according to an individual’s social class position. We therefore ask whether the importance attached to grandparenthood varies for individuals from different social classes as well. Furthermore, we test for other correlates of the subjective importance of grandparenthood, such as the quality of family relations, marital status, and value orientations towards life in general. The analyses are based on data of the German Ageing Survey, a nationally representative study of individuals aged 40 years and older. Data collected in 2008 provide information on the subjective importance of (prospective) grandparenthood as reported by grandparents and non-grandparents. According to our data, the subjective importance of experienced as well as prospective grandparenthood does not vary by social class. Instead, we find relationship quality with grandchildren to be most influential and positively related to the perceived importance of the grandparent role. The same holds true for non-grandparents and their relationships with children. Conservative value orientations promote the importance of a future transition to grandparenthood only. In light of the findings, and given the changing opportunities to experience the grandparent role, grandparenthood might evolve into an unequally distributed social resource for later life. ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 30 26074018; fax: +49 30 7854350. E-mail address: katharina.mahne@dza.de (K. Mahne). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Advances in Life Course Research jo u rn al h om epag e: ww w.els evier.c o m/lo cat e/alcr 1040-2608/$ – see front matter ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2012.06.001