Grandchildren Support Research Articles

Grandparent Caregivers Lived Experiences and Resource Needs/Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT This project examined the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on grandparent caregivers, grandchildren, family dynamics, and resources to mitigate and navigate crises. Phone interviews were conducted with 24 grandparent caregivers using a semi-structured interview guide. Caregivers explained that the pandemic had impacted them and their grandchildren by increasing emotional distress, social isolation, financial difficulties, and challenges with education. Helpful resources consisted of financial support, respite care, and support for grandchildren. Thus, there is a need to provide grandparent caregivers with the same resources that foster care providers receive - particularly when faced with challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Free-Form Dance as an Alternative Interaction for Adult Grandchildren and Their Grandparents.

Shared leisure activities fulfill a central role in strengthening the relationship with adult grandchildren and provide a vehicle for transmission of values. Thus, it is likely that joint activity alongside support and focused guidance in communication between adult grandchildren and grandparents will help strengthen their relationship. Based on theory and research on dance/movement therapy in old age, and on development processes in the family, the aim of the present study is to discover the significance of free-form dance jointly engaged in by adult grandchildren with their grandparents, for each of the generations. Using action research, 16 dance-movement therapists and their grandmothers participated in three dance meetings in their grandmothers’ homes. Based on filmed videos of the sessions, personal diaries, and semi-structured interviews, it was found that among the granddaughters, the meeting aroused concerns about their lack of skill to create a meaningful meeting and to protect their grandmothers throughout the meeting. It was also found that regular free-form dance meetings in which the granddaughter mirrored her grandmother’s movements while suggesting expansions to the movements, encouraging eye contact, touch, and playfulness, and empowering her ability, while also granting legitimacy to rest, created a change in the grandmother’s state of mind: positive memories and feelings appeared, as did uplifted spirits. For the granddaughters, the meeting altered their perspective on old age and provided a space for processes of parting. The implications of identifying assistive components of joint dancing for creating an intervention model for adult grandchildren’s support of the elderly in the community are extensively discussed.

GRANDPARENTS RAISING GRANDCHILDREN IN KOREA: CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING OF MULTIGENERATIONAL CAREGIVING

Korean grandparents raising their grandchildren play significant roles as social and family resources in Korea. They experience caregiving stress that negatively influences their mental health while struggling with limited social support from peers, and minimal respite care and community resources. Despite a need for resources and information concerning this growing population, there is limited knowledge on Korean custodial grandparents, especially the distinctive cultural factors influencing their multigenerational caregiving experiences. This qualitative study explored Korean custodial grandparents’ experiences of raising grandchildren and cultural meanings of multigenerational caregiving. Using a phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews with 23 custodial grandparents were conducted from December 2018- January 2019 in two urban and three rural places in Korea. Among the grandparents, five were grandfathers. The mean age of the grandparents was 72 years old (range: 61-82), and the mean age of their grandchildren was 13 years old (range: 1-21). On average, the grandparents had raised 1.5 grandchildren (range: 1-3) for 11 years (range: 1.5-20). Four key themes emerged from the general structure of the lived experiences of Korean grandparents: a) intensive child care support from the grandchildren’s uncle and aunt; (b) stigma of a child’s divorce and custodial grandparenting; (c) different social expectations toward maternal grandparents; and (d) increased needs on financial educational support for grandchildren. The finding reinforces the significant function of collectivistic and family-based Asian culture in understanding experiences of Korean custodial grandparents. It also highlights society’s view of only men carrying forward family lineage and its implications on grandparents’ perceptions about multigenerational caregiving.

A Qualitative Study of Latino Grandparents' Involvement in and Support for Grandchildren's Leisure Time Physical Activity.

Latino grandparents are often involved in rearing of grandchildren. However, their roles in promoting Latino children's leisure time physical activity (LTPA) have been largely overlooked by researchers. The purpose of this study is to examine Latino grandparents' involvement in and support for grandchildren's (age 2-12) LTPA as well as issues facing Latino grandparents. Participants included 53 Latino grandparents who lived with/cared for or used to live with/care for grandchildren of 2 to 12 years old in three low-income areas of Los Angeles County. Data were collected using 4 semistructured focus groups and 26 semistructured interviews. Transcribed data were systematically and iteratively coded and analyzed. Latino grandparents perceived various benefits of physical activity to their grandchildren's physical and mental health, and supported grandchildren's LTPA directly and indirectly. The direct support included doing physical activity with grandchildren, taking grandchildren to places for physical activities, verbally asking grandchildren to do physical activities, and rewarding grandchildren for doing physical activities. The indirect support was made through providing suggestions to parents. Mothers usually regulated Latino grandparents' involvement in or support for grandchildren's LTPA and tended to promote a maternal lineage. Some Latino grandparents reported barriers to supporting grandchildren's LTPA, including lack of information, access to affordable and safe LTPA facilities/programs, transportation, money, and time. Latino grandparents are advocates for grandchildren's LTPA and support grandchildren's LTPA directly and indirectly. It may be promising to develop interventions to increase Latino grandparents' competency in supporting grandchildren's LTPA.

Grandparents' Involvement and Support in Families with Children with Disabilities

This study reviews recent literature related to grandparents' involvement and support for grandchildren with disabilities and their grandchildrens' family. The literature reveals that grandparents' initial reactions are similar to parents' reactions of shock, anger, and grief when they learn a grandchild has a disability. Over time, grandparents become involved in their grandchild's family system, providing practical and emotional support. Factors that influence grandparents' support and involvement include residential proximity, their level of understanding of their grandchild's disability, and the affective solidarity between them and their adult child who is the parent of the grandchild. Grandparents' support and involvement is promoted when they have access to accurate information regarding their grandchild's disability, experience good communication exists between them and their adult child, and when support groups or workshops are available to them in their community. A variety of unexplored areas are identified where additional and longitudinal research may yield new and interesting information regarding our understanding of factors that effect grandparents' involvement and support in families with children with disabilities.

Measuring grandparenthood stress and reward: Developing a scale based on perceptions by grandparents with adolescent grandchildren in Hong Kong

To develop a Grandparent Stress and Reward Scale (GSRS) for grandparents with adolescent grandchildren in a Chinese context. Twenty-three grandparents with adolescent grandchildren were given in-depth interviews on perceived grandparenthood stress and reward to develop the GSRS. The GSRS was then tested on 107 older adults (mean age, 75.8 years) whose youngest grandchildren were aged 12 or older, living in the community, and were recruited from elderly service agencies. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a standardized questionnaire which included the GSRS, Life Satisfaction Scale for Chinese Elders (LSS-C), a single-item measure on grandparenthood stress, and demographic measures. The GSRS has satisfactory structure validity. It measures three aspects of reward (self-esteem and life satisfaction, life-long learning opportunity, and grandchildren support), and two aspects of stress (relationship-oriented stress and grandchildren-oriented stress). GSRS was correlated with LSS-C and perceived grandparenthood stress as theoretically expected, which supported its criteria-related validity. It also had satisfactory reliability based on the internal consistency coefficient. The GSRS was a valid and reliable measure that assesses meaning given to grandparents' perception on reward and stress in relations with adolescent grandchildren in a Chinese context. The underlying construct of the scale suggested that the meaning given to grandparenthood in the Chinese context was still influenced by the Confucian tradition.