This study examined the pattern of use of different forms of contact between grandparents and grandchildren, and especially the use of new technologies (SMS, e-mail) and factors affecting this. Questionnaire data are reported from 408 grandparents in the UK, Spain, Finland and Estonia, regarding contacts with grandchildren mostly in the 10-15-year age range. Face-to-face contact remained the most frequent mean, followed closely by landline telephone; there was moderate use of mobile phones, and many used letters/cards occasionally; and a minority used SMS and e-mails (about one-half to one-third of those with mobile phones, and networked computers, respectively). When contacting grandchildren, most grandparents accumulate different forms of contact, but others compensate some forms of contact. There were no differences by age of grandparent, but grandmothers made more use of e-mail than grandfathers, as did more highly educated grandparents and those with older grandchildren. Implications for use of Information and Communication Technology by older people are discussed.

The article concerns factors predicting different types of both traditional and modern forms of grandparent-grandchild communication in a sample of Finnish grandparents and in a separate sample of Finnish grandchildren between 11-13 and 16-17 years of age. The data has been gathered using a New Technologies Questionnaire in both samples and the Grandparent Role Inventory in the grandparent sample. In the grandparent sample, age, gender, education, the geographical distance between the two generations, and four factor scores of grandparenting style have been used as predictors of different types of contact frequency in categorical regression analyses. The same types of analyses have been carried out in the grandchild sample with age, gender, the age of the grandparent, and proximity to the grandparent as predictors. A significant relation between the proximity between the generations (measured in time) and all forms of contact frequency is found both in the grandparent and grandchild sample. There are fewer face-to face contacts, landline phone contacts, and mobile contacts the farther away the generations live but more letters and/or cards. In the grandchild sample, the farther away the generations live, the less the grandchildren use short message service, or text messaging. The study also finds a significant relation between contact frequency and the factor of formal