Having a good time—not a long time—with grandparents may be the most important factor in a child not being ageist, or discriminatory against older people. The study of 1151 children aged 7–16 was conducted in Belgium and published in Child Development.

The quality of time spent with grandparents, where children were happy, was much more influential than the quantity of time. The children who spent quality time at least once a week were the least ageist of all.

There were three other factors that made children less likely to discriminate against older people: being aged 10–12 (those aged 7–9 expressed the most prejudice), being a girl, and the grandparents being in good health.