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Background

Helena Hurme & Susanne Westerback (Åbo Akademi University, Finland) Tatiana Quadrello & Peter K. Smith (University of London) Marika Veisson (Tallinn University, Estonia) Johanna Menzinger & Sandra Vidal (Universidad Carlos III, Madrid).

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Background

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  1. Helena Hurme & Susanne Westerback (Åbo Akademi University, Finland) Tatiana Quadrello & Peter K. Smith (University of London)Marika Veisson (Tallinn University, Estonia)Johanna Menzinger & Sandra Vidal (Universidad Carlos III, Madrid) The impact of families and societies in transition on intergenerational relationships – the role of technology

  2. Background • The current technological revolution, affects the way people are communicating with each other, through the so called ‘new media’, or Information and Communication Technology (ICT) • Here the use of new communication technology by grandparents, in their communication with grandchildren, is studied • Four European countries - the UK, Spain, Estonia and Finland. • We specifically examine mobile phone calls, SMS use, Internet use and e-mails.

  3. Ricci (2000) noted considerable variations in use. • Use was less in the southern European countries; among women; the elderly; the less educated, and manual workers; those in rural areas; and those with no children. • The Digital Access Index was developed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU World Communication Report, 2003) to measure the overall ability of individuals in a country to access and use ICT. • In the countries of our study it gives ratings of 0.79 for Finland and 0.77 for the UK (‘high access countries’), and 0.67 for both Spain and Estonia (‘upper access countries’).

  4. Access index (DAI) and use of ICT in United Kingdom, Finland, Spain and Estonia

  5. Internet use • Eurobarometers: In 2003 slightly more than half of the EU-15 population used a computer and 43.5% were Internet users, compared to 30% in the EU New Members States • June 2003, Internet use including email: UK 57%, Finland 57%, Estonia 44% and Spain 34%. • In all countries, men use the Internet more than women. The gap was 11% in Spain, 6% in the UK, 2% in Estonia and 1% in Finland (Commission of the European Communities, 2005).

  6. Of the EU population over 50, 50.1% of Finns, 46.1% in the UK and 45.8 % in Spain had used a computer during the last three months. • According to the Estonian market study company EMOR (October 2004), 18% of persons aged 49-74 in Estonia use computers and send e-mails. • However, the ability to use a computer varies • 5.3% of Finns, 20.6% in the UK and 8.1% in Spain said that they had virtually no clue about the use of a computer (among those who had used one). (Seniorwatch, 2002 , www.seniorwatch.de )

  7. Mobile phones • In EU-15 around 70% have a mobile phone, compared with 51% in NMS (Commission of the European Communities, 2005). • The ITU World Communication Report (2003) found the proportion of mobile phone subscribers to be 84.5% in Finland, 80.1% in Spain, 53.4% in the UK and 65% in Estonia. • SMS is rapidly increasing and is the most popular added service in mobile phones. The Finns (with a population of 5.2 million inhabitants) sent 1.2 million SMS in 2001 and 1.6 billion SMS in 2003 (Nordic Information Society Statistics, 2002).

  8. Aims of the study We were particularly interested in • whether grandparents show ‘accumulation’ or ‘compensation’ in their communication modes with grandchildren • factors affecting use of ICT, especially whether males still showed more new technology use in the area of grandparent-grandchild communication where traditionally females show higher rates of contact.

  9. Samples

  10. Methods • A new communication technologies questionnaire (grandparents) was devised. • Four sections: (A) on use of new communication technologies, (B) numbers of children and grandchildren, (C) nature and frequency of contacts with grandchildren, and views about using new technologies with grandchildren, (D) demographic information. • Here we report quantitative information from sections A and C, relating them to certain demographic variables from sections B and D. • In section C, each grandparent was asked to provide contact information for up to three grandchildren, prioritizing those in the age range 10 to 15 years.

  11. Results:Contact frequency • The ordering of the five forms of contact were very similar across the four countries. Because the sampling was slightly different in the four countries, country is not studied in more detail. • Face-to-face contact was most frequent, followed closely by use of fixed phone, these each occurring on average about once a week. • Mobile phone use for telephone calls was less frequent, • Contact by SMS and e-mail both less frequent still and restricted to a minority of the sample

  12. Compensation or accumulation? • To see whether some grandparents were simply more active than others in contacting grandchildren, over all forms of contact (accumulation model); or whether there was compensation between say face-to-face contact and other forms, we inter-correlated the frequencies of contact across these five modalities, for the whole sample; together with distance as assessed on a 5-point scale

  13. Correlation of frequency of contact and distance

  14. The factor structure of contacts • Two factors with an Eigenvalue over one extracted. • In the rotated solution, face-to-face (loading .66), mobile phone (.54) and fixed phone (.52) contacts loaded on the first factor, interpreted as a traditional, spoken communication factor. • Contacts by SMS (.60) and e-mail (.46) loaded on the second factor, interpreted as a new technology factor.

  15. Country is a significant predictor in all cases, but is not considered further due to sample limitations. • Sex of grandparent was not significant in any analyses. • Distance to grandchild is significant for both the traditional and new communication factors, those living closer using more spoken communication and those living further using new means of communication more often – but only for the e-mail component (see also Table 4). • Age of grandparent significantly predicts the use of both e-mail and SMS, the younger grandparents using them more often. • Education significantly predicts the use of new communications and especially e-mail, those having a longer education using e-mail significantly more often. • Age of grandchild differentiates between the use of traditional, spoken communication and new forms of communication; the younger the grandchild is, the more the grandparents communicate in traditional ways and the older they are, the more they use new technology in communication.

  16. Conclusions • The title of this presentation was :”The impact of families and societies in transition on intergenerational relationships – the role of technology” • On the basis of our material, we could see that • There were clear differences between the countries but they may reflect different sampling procedures • The age of the grandparents influences the use of technology, younger GP:s using more new technology • The sex of the GP:s is not a significant predictor • Younger GC use less new technology • Proximity is a significant factor in contacts • The more educated use more new technology in this communication

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