Family ties are made stronger by the maternal side

Published on Sunday 23 December 2007 19:32

AS FAMILIES gather together, some faces may be more familiar than others.

A recent study shows that the amount of social interaction between extended family members depends on whether people are related through their mother or father. Thomas Pollet and colleagues at Newcastle University and the University of Antwerp in Belgium investigated how far maternal grandparents and paternal grandparents will go to maintain face-to-face contact with their grandchildren.

They found that maternal grandparents were willing to travel further in order to sustain frequent – either daily or a few times a week – contact with their grandchildren than paternal grandparents.

Mr Pollet said: "Even in families where there has been divorce, we found consistent differences – grandparents on your mother's side make the extra effort. We believe there are psychological mechanisms at play because throughout history, women are always related by maternity whereas men can never be wholly certain they are the biological father to their children."