Family Milieu and the Child’s Abilities: the Role of Parents and Grandparents

Abstract

The author examines the influence of grandparents (the second preceeding generation) on individal differences in creativity and intelligence. Those children, in whose upbringing granmothers had a bigger part, have a higher level of creativity. The author distinguishes between two different approaches to upbringing: one by parents and the other by grandparents. Grandmothers’ positive impact on creativity can be explained by the following factors: lessening prohibitions and demands from the adults; allowing children more emotional self-expression; encouraging positive self-esteem in the child. Using the method of multiple regresion analysis, the author analyses the impact of each factor on children’s abilities.