Investigating the Role of Identity Gaps among Communicative and Relational Outcomes within the Grandparent-Grandchild Relationship: The Young-Adult Grandchildren's Perspective

This study focused on the identity gap construct and examined its impact within the grandparent-grandchild relationship. It was hypothesized that identity gaps consist of three distinct dimensions: the personal-relational, personal-enacted, and relational-enacted gaps. Further, it was hypothesized that identity gaps would be positively related to topic avoidance and negatively to communication and relationship satisfaction. Undergraduates completed an online survey (N = 181), and the results supported the distinction between the three identity gaps. SEM analyses revealed that only the personal-enacted gap significantly predicted all outcomes, whereas the other gaps did not, thus providing partial support for the second hypothesis.