Arpino, BrunoMeli, EleonoraPasqualini, MartaTomassini, CeciliaCisotto, Elisa2023-05-102023-05-102022Arpino B, Meli E, Pasqualini M, Tomassini C, Cisotto E. Determinants of grandparent-grandchild digital contact in Italy. Genus. 2022;78:20. DOI: 10.1186/s41118-022-00167-52035-5556http://hdl.handle.net/10230/56762The broad definition of intergenerational contact includes not only meeting face-to-face, but also the important element of communication at a distance, such as via telephone. With the pervasion of the Internet and electronic devices, digital contact has become another increasingly important option. We examined digital contact between grandparents and grandchildren in comparison with traditional forms of contact (i.e. face-to-face and by telephone) using Italian data from the 2016 Families, Social Subjects and life cycle (FSS) survey. We found that grandparents belonging to younger cohorts, those with higher education, those who lived in urban areas and those in better health were more likely to maintain digital contact with their grandchildren. Results also show that digital contact tends to compensate for a lack of (frequent) face-to-face contact, and to cumulate with telephone contact. Our results have significant implications for the current and future development of intergenerational relationships as they suggest an increasing role of digital contact for distant geographical situations. Against the background of persisting inequalities in the access and the use of the Internet, our findings emphasise the need to improve digital network connectivity and user skills, particularly among specific sub-groups of the population.application/pdfeng© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41118-022-00167-5Digital contactIntergenerational relationshipsItalyGrandparentingGrandparent–grandchild contactinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess