The results of Hagestad's (1983) longitudinal research suggest that families should build bridges between the old and the young. Due to a rapidly changing society with norms and beliefs profoundly different from those two generations ago, the surrounding community does not itself provide a "common ground" for the grandchild and the grandparent to relate. Subsequently, families must build a relational bridge that will accommodate different stages of life, generational positions, and different historical perspectives. For example, Hagestad (1983) found that both grandchildren and grandparents reported avoiding certain topics of discussion in order to avoid conflict. Typically, those mutually avoided topics involved areas of life in which sociocultural change had occurred. Not only must there be an effort to bridge the generations, but that effort must be reciprocal (Baranowski, 1982; Hagestad, 1985). Hagestad (1983) points out that both the grandparent and the grandchild must initiate and actively negotiate the evolving relationship in order to insure its maintenance.