ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines some of the arguments from evolutionary biology which may be particularly relevant to understanding human grandparenthood. It describes some attempts at modelling the influence of a number of causal factors, distal and proximal, on reported grandparental behaviour to children and grandchildren. A combined model taking full account of both proximal and distal factors, and elaborated by path analysis, may make it easier to provide a reasonably complete account of the complex patterns of cooperation and conflict observable between generations. Evolutionary strategies may be predicted to lie behind certain patterns in grandparent behaviour and in the behaviour adopted by other members of the extended family towards the grandparents. Grandparents appeared to have greater frequency of disagreements with female children than with male children. A grandparent might for example feel some constraint in resource allocation if they were more socially dependent on one child than another.
