Grandmothers' advice about disciplining grandchildren: is it accepted by mothers, and does its rejection influence grandmothers' subsequent guidance?

To test whether maternal grandmothers' advice affects mothers' punishing of their children and whether mothers' disciplinary actions influence subsequent suggestions by these grandmothers, 40 three-generational families were examined. After receiving advice purportedly from the grandmothers, mothers rewarded and punished their 10-year-olds' successes and errors on a task. Participants were in separate rooms so that simulated information about the grandmothers' advice, mothers' disciplinary decisions, and children's performances could be systematically manipulated under controlled conditions. The grandmothers' sham "suggestions" to mothers about punishing appeared either to begin leniently but progressively intensify or to start harshly but gradually mollify. Information to grandmothers about the mothers' "punishing" likewise either became increasingly severe or indulgent. All children, however, appeared to continue performing uniformly. Mothers generally modified their disciplining to correspond to the grandmothers' apparent advice, and grandmothers' actual suggestions conformed toward the mothers' simulated discipline. Grandmothers appear to be one of many influences affecting mothers' decisions about their children.