The role of resilience in mediating stressor-outcome relationships among grandparents raising their grandchildren

Abstract

The incidence of custodial grandparenting has increased over the last decade, and grandparents raise their grandchildren for a variety of reasons, i.e., the death, drug use, divorce, or incarceration of the child’s birthparents. While it is commonly recognized that grandparents face added stress and much adversity that arises from caregiving, current research tends to be mixed regarding the effects of grandparents raising grandchildren. Indeed, while much research concludes that grandparent caregivers experience declines in over all health and well-being, other work suggests that grandparent caregiving may actually be a positive experience, leading to personal growth and to deeper, more satisfying relationships with a grandchild. That some studies paint a negative picture while others do not may be a consequence of varying levels of resilience among custodial grandparents. The model proposed and tested in this study centralizes resilience as an adaptive quality that grandparent caregivers possess in varying degrees, and examines resilience as a mediator of relationships between several antecedent grandchildrelated and life situation-related (life resources) variables that affect custodial grandparents in both parental and well-being related ways. Based upon data gathered from 239 custodial grandparents, it was found that resilience, as well as its parental equivalent, parental efficacy, was significant in mediating the effects of grandparent caregiving. Thus, grandparent caregivers who vary in terms of personal resilience are likely to fare better or worse in coping with thedemands of raising a grandchild.

Publication Title

Resilient Grandparent Caregivers: A Strengths-Based Perspective

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