ABSTRACT The grandparent–grandchild relationship has been found to influence grandchildren's development in various domains. However, there is a lack of a systematic review with quantitative synthesis about how relationships with grandparents were related to grandchildren's development. We conducted a systematic review with meta‐analysis for existing studies on the association between grandparent–grandchild relationship strength and grandchildren's psychological, social, behavioral, physical, and cognitive outcomes. A total of 59 independent samples and 374 effect sizes with a cumulative sample size of 71,395 published between 2002 and 2022 were included. Using a three‐level meta‐analytic approach, results revealed a small but positive pooled correlation between relationship with grandparents and grandchildren's developmental outcomes, r = 0.13, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 0.11, 0.16. We also identified various demographic and methodological moderators that explained the heterogeneity of existing findings. The results reveal grandparents' constructive and dynamic role in the family system.
Li et al. (Wed,) studied this question.