The Profile of Stress and Coping Related to Successful Aging Among Chinese Migrant and Nonmigrant Grandparents

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Around eight million older adults have internally migrated to take care of grandchildren in China. This study aimed to explore how Chinese migrant and nonmigrant grandparents perceived successful aging and how they coped with challenges to successful aging.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Based on ecological systems theory, semistructured interviews were conducted among 21 grandparents (12 migrants, median age = 59 years old) from urban areas in China who provided noncustodial grandchild care. Deductive content analysis was employed to examine the data pertaining to the definition of successful aging, the stressors encountered, and coping strategies employed by both groups.

RESULTS

Findings revealed that both migrant and nonmigrant grandparents placed a higher emphasis on family prosperity than their own physical health, in their definitions of successful aging. Although both groups experienced common stressors in the microsystem (e.g., intergenerational conflicts), migrant grandparents uniquely encountered stressors in the mesosystem (e.g., hardships in their close relationships) and in the macrosystem (e.g., uncertainty in aging preparation). In terms of coping, migrant grandparents exhibited a distinctive pattern of utilizing avoidant coping strategies when navigating intergenerational conflicts and planning for their later life, compared to nonmigrant grandparents.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Our findings suggested that although migration was not associated with grandparents' definition of successful aging, migrant grandparents encountered specific challenges in achieving successful aging. This highlights the necessity of providing more support to grandparents through the family, community, or state, particularly to those who are migrants.

Support and Satisfaction: Perspectives of Older Grandparent Caregivers About Faith-Based Communities

Older grandparents raising adolescent grandchildren are a hidden caregiving population. Religion serves as a protective factor for many older adult caregivers. The caregiving and religion literature often excludes exploration of caregivers' satisfaction with social support provided by faith-based communities. Nineteen older grandparents raising adolescent grandchildren participated in in-depth qualitative interviews regarding the lived experiences of their social support and satisfaction woth faith-based communities. Research questions were: (1) describe, if any, what types of support you receive from church or religious groups? and (2) how satisfied are you with the support from church or religious groups? The diverse sample of grandparents were White (n = 10), Black/African American (n = 7), Native American (n = 1), and Filipino (n = 1). Respondents were primarily married (58%), white/nonHispanic (53%), grandmothers (84%), with some college education or college graduate (79%). Older grandparent caregivers identified key people, situational circumstances, and tangible goods that enhanced their wellbeing and posed opportunities for more support. Five themes characterizing social support and satisfaction with older grandparent caregivers' perspectives of their faith-based communities were emotional support, activities and resources, stopped attending church, attended church but did not seek support, and mixed satisfaction with religious support. Implications are presented for social work education and social work practice.

Should I Do This? Factors Influencing the Decision to Raise Grandchildren Among Custodial Grandparents

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Grandparents often step in to raise grandchildren when the middle generation is unavailable or unwilling. Although the consequences of raising grandchildren are well researched, little is known about the factors influencing grandparents' decisions to raise grandchildren. The objectives of this study were to (a) explore the factors that influence decision-making processes among grandparent caregivers, and (b) investigate the extent to which these factors reflect a multifaceted, dualistic framework.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Data were collected from 108 custodial grandparents who answered an open-ended question about their decision to raise grandchildren.

RESULTS

Content analyses of participants' answers yielded 15 factorial dimensions defined in terms of their negative/push or positive/pull poles, as it related to their decision to raise grandchildren. Chi-squared tests were used to examine each dimension to the extent to which elicited frequencies were differentially represented for positive versus negative poles. For 12 dimensions, the negative decisional parameters outweighed those that were positive.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Grandparents report both positive and negative parameters when reflecting on their decision to raise grandchildren. These results call for further research to advance the understanding of the decision-making processes that caregiving grandparents make and the role that they may have on their experiences.

Grandfamilies and the Opioid Epidemic: A Systemic Perspective and Future Priorities

As a result of the devastating impact of the opioid epidemic, increased numbers of children are being raised by their grandparents in what are known as grandfamilies. Despite these children and their families experiencing difficult environmental circumstances, numerous adverse life events, and challenging family dynamics, empirical examinations of the opioid epidemic, as it relates to grandfamilies, remain limited. The purpose of this review is to advance the understanding of how grandfamilies have been impacted by the opioid epidemic by using a systemic perspective to highlight themes and major conclusions within the existing conceptual and empirical literature. The review reveals five systemically informed themes including the assumption of caregiving responsibilities, grandparent stress and well-being, caring for vulnerable grandchildren, navigating relationships with parents, and contextual stressors of societal stigma and barriers to service. To extend this work, systemically informed recommendations for clinical intervention and future priorities for research and policy are discussed.

Safety and placement stability for the Children's Home Network kinship navigator program

BACKGROUND

With the passage of the Families First Prevention Act, kinship navigator programs have growing support as an intervention to connect kinship families to needed resources. Growing evidence has helped to showcase the outcomes, but no study has shared follow up outcomes past twelve months.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the 12, 24 and 36 month follow up child safety (substantiated abuse record) and placement stability (disruption in placement) outcomes from state administered secondary data for children whose caregivers participated in the Children's Home Network-Kinship Navigator Program (CHN-KN).

SETTING

Study participants were 240 (60 in each group) randomly selected kinship caregivers who were enrolled in four treatment groups in CHN-KN (Standard Kinship Navigator, Kinship Navigator with Innovations, Kinship Navigator with Peer-to-Peer only, and Usual Child Welfare).

METHODS

Repeated measures anovas were used to show between group differences for each study group.

RESULTS

Results show that children living with caregivers who received Kinship Navigator Programs (Kinship Navigator Peer to Peer and Kinship Navigator with Innovations) were the least likely to be involved in a substantiation of child abuse or neglect and most likely to remain in the home of a relative at 12, 24 and 36 month follow up.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that the kinship navigator programs could improve child safety and placement stability. This study can help to inform the replication of the CHN-KN model and provide additional supported evidence to inform practice.

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: What Have We Learned Over the Past Decade?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

In this manuscript, we update the literature over the last decade in addressing several new content areas that have emerged in the grandfamilies literature, along with issues that are still important to understanding grandparents raising their grandchildren today.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

The social science and gerontological literature since 2004 was accessed, reviewed, organized topically, and integrated, based upon an exhaustive PsychINFO literature search.

RESULTS

Our review indicates an ongoing and/or growing emphasis on (a) the strengths of grandparent raising grandchildren, (b) diversity among grandfamilies along a number of parameters, (c) the social-interpersonal, cultural, and policy-related contexts of grandfamilies, (d) process-focused research, (e) parenting, parenting skills, and family relationships, (f) grandparent psychological distress, (g) targets for and the efficacy of interventions with grandfamilies, and (h) methodological issues relevant to the study of grandfamilies.

IMPLICATIONS

We discuss the implications of our findings in terms of more completely understanding grandfamilies along a number of parameters, as well as presenting specific recommendations for future research and practice.

"We Raise our Grandchildren as our Own:" Alaska Native Grandparents Raising Grandchildren in Southwest Alaska

This study explores continuity and change in the roles of rural Alaska Native grandparents, describing their importance in contemporary Yup'ik social life and structure. The study is distinctive in its focus on the experiences of Yup'ik grandparents who are primary caregivers raising their grandchildren in Southwest Alaska. Qualitative data were gathered using a semi-structured interview from 20 Yup'ik grandparents, ages 46 to 95, who raised their grandchildren as the primary caregiver for at least one year. Content analysis was used to establish a culturally grounded understanding of the role of a grandparent raising grandchildren and meanings of these roles to Yup'ik grandparents. Findings reveal areas of continuity and change in the role and place of grandparents in Yup'ik families and communities. Important continuities persist in the role of Yup'ik grandparents, who continue to be a vital resource within their families and communities. As in the past, the grandparent role is essential in passing down cultural knowledge, upholding traditional Yup'ik values and teachings, and facilitating development of a strong and healthy cultural identity among youth. However, significant change has taken place within Yup'ik communities as a result of Western colonization. Grandparent roles are also shifting and expanding as a result of these changes, as part of an adaptive community response to ensure the safety and well-being of youth during times of great change and disruption.

Housing needs of grandparent caregivers: grandparent, youth, and professional perspectives

This qualitative study examined the housing needs of grandparent caregivers and the youth in their care in New York State. Nine focus groups were conducted separately with grandparent caregivers (n = 46) and youth (n = 34), and interviews were conducted with key informants (n = 17) knowledgeable about housing and issues. Housing needs of greatest priority, contextual differences, and potential barriers to securing housing and social services were identified. Key themes indicated that housing challenges stem from four problem domains: the experience of poverty, which creates affordability challenges that trap grandparent caregivers and their grandchildren in unsuitable homes and unsafe neighborhoods; physical challenges of aging grandparents, which require specific housing accommodations; changes in family composition when taking in grandchildren, which necessitate moving out of prior accommodations or changing housing plans due to regulatory issues; and obstacles to obtaining needed benefits, including a lack of information, burdensome application processes, ineligibility, and a shortage of resources. These issues are discussed with implications for policy and practice.