The Family and Communication Dynamics of Group Salience

Group salience is a key variable both in influencing quality of intergroup contact and in moderating the effects of intergroup contact on prejudicial attitudes. Two studies uncovered the communicative dimensions associated with evaluations of age salience in the grandparent–grandchild relationship, and we investigated the extent to which communication dimensions predicted various measures of salience, relational closeness, and attitudes concerning aging. Communication phenomena that were positively correlated with measures of age salience were negatively related to relational closeness. Only 1 communication measure (grandparents talking about the past) moderated the relationship between quality of contact with grandparent and attitudes toward older people. Specific communicative dimensions emerged that warrant further investigation in this and other intergroup contexts.