In her thesis, Linn Alenius Wallin examines the relationships between bonus grandchildren and bonus parents, i.e. bonus grandparents and bonus grandparents. She has conducted interviews with both children and grandparents.
A central question during the defence of the thesis was what makes a relationship a family relationship, and the answers from the children and the older generation differed. For the children, the most important part of the relationship was the involvement of the bonus grandparents, while the adults had several reasons for having a good relationship with the child, including wanting to treat everyone equally and feeling that the child needed them. The adults also expressed that the relationship was hindered if they were not allowed in or if they felt the child was too old. The adults focused on how other adults might perceive the situation. Linn Alenius Wallin said that children learn that biology is important to adults and that bonus relationships are built on other grounds where relationships are negotiated in complicated networks.
- We need to talk to those who are directly affected. We cannot ask adults or draw on our own memories to understand children.
External reviewer Professor Vanessa May, University of Manchester, said the thesis provided a good insight into the diversity of family relationships today.
- This is a diverse and well-written thesis that I enjoyed reading. It provides a fascinating and fresh look at bonus families and how families are made.
A unanimous Examining Committee approved the thesis.
The thesis
Linn Alenius Wallin’s thesis is called “Bonus-grandchildren and Bonus-grandparents: On Care and Relationships Between Generations in Reconstituted and Chosen Families”. Her supervisors were Sara Eldén and Åsa Lundqvist.