Maternal Grandmothers and Childhood Resilience: A Powerful Influence

If youve ever known the relief of a grandmothers embrace or the comfort of pulling up in her driveway and knowing that a hot meal was waiting for you, then you probably dont need any research to tell you that a grandmothers presence has restorative effects. Though we cant precisely quantify the effect of a grandmothers love, a new study offers statistical proof that grandmothers do help children weather lifes hardships. Researchers at the University of Turku, in Finland, looked at data collected in a 2007 survey completed by 1,566 English and Welsh youth, ages 11 to 16. Youth who lived with their grandparents or who did not have at least one living grandparent were excluded from the study. The survey included a behavioral screening questionnaire to measure the young peoples emotional and behavioral problems. Our main finding was that investment from maternal grandmothers seemed to be able to protect their grandchild from the negative influence of experiencing multiple adverse early-life experiences, Samuli Helle, the lead researcher, told HuffPost.