Adult grandchildren’s perspectives on the grandparent-grandchild relationship from childhood to adulthood

The relationship between grandparents and grandchildren is usually quite close and satisfying, rather than conflictual, and is considered positive and important by both generations. The present study explores the nature of the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren in the United Kingdom. The aim of the study is to investigate adult grandchildren’s perspectives on the grandparent-grandchild relationship and its transition from childhood to adulthood. Using a Grounded Theory approach 10 young adults, aged 20–24, were interviewed about the relationship with their grandparents. Results showed that adult grandchildren perceive the relationship to continue from childhood to adulthood and to transition in terms of support, contact, attitude, and emotion. Support in childhood was reported as being more practical such as caregiving or help with education, whereas in adulthood as being more emotional. Contact was shown to be reduced from more frequent and face to face in childhood to less frequent and more telephone or internet based in adulthood. As to attitude and emotion participants reported a change in how they felt towards their grandparents from childhood to adulthood, with feelings of excitement being replaced with appreciation and respect. Implications of these transitions within grandparent-grandchild relationships are discussed.     

ADULTS IN EXPANDED GRANDPARENT ROLES: CONSIDERATIONS FOR PRACTICE,POLICY, AND RESEARCH

The number of middle-aged and older adults assuming primary caregiver roles to their grandchildren has dramatically increased in the past decade due to a myriad of serious family-related problems. Gerontology professionals in human service and mental health positions as well as policy makers and researchers can play important roles in helping these women and men function effectively in their expanded grandparent roles. The primary goal of this article is to provide a representative picture of (1) the circumstances surrounding grandparents' acquisition of the surrogate parent role; (2) the consequences of the caregiving roles for the older generation (positive as well as negative outcomes); and (3) recommendations of types of support (socioemotional and instrumental) that would be most helpful for grandparents raising their grandchildren. Recommendations for future programs, policies, and research on this growing population of family caregivers are also provided.     

DETERMINING THE SUCCESS OF GRANDPARENT EDUCATION

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of a course for grandparents. A sample of 87 consanguineous subjects included 29 grandparents, 29 grandchildren, and 29 of the grandchildren's parents. Twelve class sessions explored how the experiences of growing up and raising children differ from the recent past and attempted to identify corresponding changes required for the older relatives. Each generation was administered the Grandparent Strengths and Needs Inventory before and after grandparents attended the course. The participants reported perceptions regarding six dimensions of grandparent attitudes and behaviors. Changes in the performance of grandparents were compared using t‐tests. According to the grandparents, the course resulted in increased satisfaction (p < .05), greater success (p < .05) and more effective teaching (p < .05) in family relationships. They reported making gains for 58 out of 60 items. Parents and grandchildren corroborated most of these gains by higher posttest scores. MANOVA identified significant differences in generational perceptions of grandparent potentials (p < .05) and concerns (p < .01). The findings confirm that family development goals can be supported by making education for grandparents available and encouraging them to remain influential in their families through continued learning.     

Teachers' perceptions of the emotional and behavioral functioning of children raised by grandparents

Increasing numbers of grandparents are becoming full‐time surrogate parents to their grandchildren. Grandparents who raise their grandchildren reportedly endure high levels of stress, and grandchildren purportedly experience childhood trauma that can lead to poor psychological adjustment. While anecdotal reports have suggested that grandchildren experience significant behavioral problems, there is a dearth of data to empirically support this view. This research was an initial endeavor to ascertain whether teachers perceive children raised by grandparents as exhibiting serious emotional and behavioral problems. Fifty‐four African American children raised by their grandparents and a comparison group of 54 African American children living with their parents were studied to determine the grandchildren's functioning. Teachers perceived the children raised by their grandparents as experiencing significantly more emotional and behavioral problems than their similar schoolmates. Children in these families appear in need of school‐based intervention services. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 565–572, 2006.     

Theory‐Based Interventions for School Children Cared For by their Grandparents

The growing social phenomenon of grandparents caring for their grandchildren has implications for educational psychology practice, since children who are wards of their grandparents frequently experience problematic school functioning. In this paper, the literature regarding children cared for by grandparents is reviewed. Issues concerning attachment, social support, and the children’s school‐related functioning are emphasised. In addition, theoretical and practical school‐based interventions to help these grandchildren are described.     

Helping grandkin—Grandchildren raised by grandparents: Expanding psychology in the schools

Recently, large numbers of grandparents have become full-time surrogate parents to their grandchildren. The term “grandfamily” was coined to easily identify families in which children are raised by grandparents. Grandchildren in these families are called “grandkin.” Grandparents who raise their grandkin tend to have elevated levels of stress that negatively impact their well-being. Grandkin tend to develop problems with attachment and establishing social networks, which can lead to poor psychological adjustment and development. Grandparents who raise their grandchildren significantly influence the development of their grandkin in the school environment. Often the children experience severe academic and behavioral problems in school. This article provides a review of the literature about grandkin and grandparents in grandfamilies, particularly as the relationship influences the children's school functioning. In addition, the Grandfamily School Support Network is discussed as a means of ameliorating the difficulties experienced by grandkin and grandparents. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Values Aspired for the Future Scale in grandparents

Although the engagement of grandparents in grandchildren’s life has increased, there is a lack of research that explores the values that grandparents desire to transmit to their grandchildren. The aim of this study was to analyze the factor structure, the validity, and the reliability of the Values Aspired for the Future Scale in a sample of grandparents. Three hundred grandparents participated in this study. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a three-factor structure with an excellent overall fit: personal and relationship values, abilities and knowledge values, and materialistic values. Grandparents’ sex did not have a moderating effect on the factor structure. An adequate internal consistency was obtained. Signi?cant associations between values, health-related quality of life, social support, and psychological well-being were found, with the exception of the materialistic values. This scale should be tested in different cultural contexts in order to confirm the results found. The implications of the results are discussed.     

GRANDPARENTS PARENTING GRANDCHILDREN: EXTENT OF SITUATION,ISSUES INVOLVED,AND EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

The number of grandparents who are parenting their grandchildren is growing. This paper examines the extent of this phenomenon and examines some of the issues these grandparents face this "second time around" in parenting. Implications for the educational community are discussed.     

Intergenerational solidarity in triads of adult grandchild,parent, and grandparent: the positive view of elders,positive expectations towards the future and young-elders divide

ABSTRACT

Introduction

The remarkable growth of older adults represents a challenge for our societies.

The population of aging requires adjustments that sometimes are difficult to achieve for already stressed welfare systems. In this context, intergenerational solidarity may play a central role. Demographic shifts over the past century have also increased the percentage of grandchildren who, as young adults, have living grandparents. Adult grandchildren could become an important source of intergenerational solidarity, but few studies have explored intergenerational relations, including grandparents, adult children, and adult grandchildren. None to our knowledge have examined which aspects of intergenerational solidarity affect the positive view of elders, positive expectations toward the future, and old-young divides.     

DEVELOPING CURRICULA FOR GRANDPARENTS IN JAPAN

The purpose of this study was to determine how three generations view the contribution and needs of grandparents in Japan. A sample consisting of 239 grandparents, 266 parents, and 274 grandchildren from, urban and rural areas completed the Grandparent Strengths and Needs Inventory (Strom & Strom, 1993). Grandparents reported more satisfaction, success, and involvement in teaching than was observed by parents or grandchildren. Grandparents experienced greater difficulty as well as frustration and saw themselves as less informed about their role than was reported by younger people. Significant main effects were generation, grandchild gender, grandchild age, generations living together, frequency of grandchild care by the grandparent, and amount of time the generations spent together. Implications for building curricula and guidelines for program development are identified.     

幼儿的祖辈主要教养人与隔代教育的研究

在园幼儿以祖辈为主要教养人的家庭中，祖辈参与的力度在不同的家庭中是不同的。本文就隔代教育的状况如何、幼儿家庭的哪些特点促成祖辈成为孙辈的主要教养人、祖辈主要教养人具有哪些个人特点、祖辈主要教养人的隔代教育对幼儿带来了什么影响等问题进行探讨。     

The relative safety of paternal,maternal, and traditional foster care placements

When children are placed into foster care the caseworker must give preference to an adult relative, many of whom are grandparents, over an unrelated caregiver. This kinship preference is based in evolutionary biology, which suggests that the imperative to care for a child should be greater for kin versus non-kin. However, not all kin are related to a child in the same way, and level of paternity uncertainty may influence level of care provided. For instance, maternal grandparents can be assured that they share genetic material with their grandchild, while paternal grandparents may not have the same level of certainty. Owing to the possibility of paternity uncertainty, we hypothesize that out-of-home placements with paternal grandparents will be at a greater risk of subsequent investigations than placements with maternal grandparents or with foster parents. We secured data on placements n = 560 of children ages 1.5 to 17 following a maltreatment investigation from a merger of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being NSCAW II and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System NCANDS. Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression were used to examine the difference in time to the first new investigation by type of out-of-home placement while controlling for covariates. Consistent with our hypothesis, placements with paternal grandparents were at a higher risk of a subsequent investigations than placements with maternal grandparents or non-kin foster parents. Results suggest a need for further considerations of child safety in foster care based on genetic relatedness of caregivers.     

Phenomenologizing Filipino custodial grandparents’ interment stress

ABSTRACT

Custodial grandparenting is yet another dynamic shift in the modern family. A diversity of social, economic and protective reasons why grandparents care for their grandchildren gives additional roles and responsibilities to grandparenthood. Equated with old age, most grandparents perceive interment as an inevitable stressful reality of life, thus this qualitative inquiry. Six custodial grandparents (61–74 years old) participated in a semi-structured interview. Field texts were vertically and horizontally analyzed to capture the core meanings of these custodial grandparents’ interment stress; emergent themes were validated through correspondence and member-checking procedures. Interestingly, this inquiry afforded the development of a Tensional Nature of Interment Stress – spanning cognitive, affective, and behavioral tensions – which represents the conflicting tensions that Filipino grandparents experience to accommodate the presence of interment stress in their custodial grandparenthood. The implications of the emerged model to educational gerontology are discussed in this paper.     

LEADING GROUPS OF OLDER PEOPLE: A DESCRIPTION AND EVALUATION OF THE EDUCATION OF PROFESSIONALS

With the substantial growth of an aging population, professionals in gerontology need to know how to work with groups of older people. Group work has become a popular means of helping the elderly, for example, to cope with losses (support groups) and to engage in social activities with peers (groups in day centers) as well as to support caregivers of dementia patients (caregivers' groups). We started group interventions to relieve loneliness among older people and developed long-term training to enhance the group leadership skills of professionals and to promote their self-reflection capabilities. Our training process consciously took advantage of constructive learning theory and a reflective learning model. The education process used modern activating learning methods to attain its goals. In this article we describe the main steps of this educational process and show the results of the trainees' evaluation, how they experienced the training process, and how the learning objectives were achieved.     

Grandparents Against Homework

America now possesses not only the largest and fastest-growing population of older adults in our history but also the healthiest, most vigorous, best educated and civic-minded. By the year 2025, one of every four Americans will be a grandparent. However, the real potential is not in the numbers, but in the emotional attachment between grandparents and their grandchildren. Their devotion to their grandchildren, in addition to the wisdom and skills learned over a lifetime, may well be the greatest social capital children and parents have in their battle against the “sacred cow” that is homework.     

GRANDPARENTS RAISING GRANDCHILDREN: GOALS AND SUPPORT GROUPS

More grandparents are raising grandchildren than ever before. Success in overcoming their unique problems requires that grandparents be optimistic and adjust to their new role; learn about child and adolescent development in today's society; cooperate with the parent who shares responsibility for providing care; monitor social and academic development; become aware of available services, obligations, and rights; and obtain periodic relief from the demands of the role. Full‐time grandparents often rely on support groups for advice and comfort. The merits of this approach are identified, along with ways to improve group interaction by encouraging hopeful attitudes and constructive behavior, setting guidelines for discussion, emphasizing communication with family members, and making education the basis for grandparent development.     

Other Teachers' Teaching: Understanding The Roles of Peer Group Collaboration in Teacher Reflection and Learning

Although most innovative professional development encourages reflective dialogue among teachers, we still know very little about how such dialogue enables teacher learning. This study describes how teachers make sense of the conflicts among their intended goals and actual practices by responding to their peers' teaching. Four teachers in a large urban high school each taught, evaluated, and shared four lessons they designed to enact self-identified goals absent from their practices. Patterns across the critiques, questions, compliments, and self-critiques that the teachers used to respond to others' lessons indicate the different ways they used the peer context to diversify, personalize, or slow down their thinking about their own teaching, and cross-case patterns reveal how they all learned in ways that would have been less likely in non-peer contexts. The findings suggest why diverse reflective peer groups are crucial starting points for larger professional networks designed to support systemic changes in teacher practices.     

家庭日常会话中的简短反馈语

该文从语言文化差异以及语用学的角度,对三个三代同堂家庭在近四万字的谈话中所用的反馈语进行比较分析,发现以英语为母语的西方家庭和中国移民家庭在会话中使用的反馈语有明显差别;在家庭成员中,不同辈分的人使用的反馈语也有不同的特征。     

Shifting the reflective focus: encouraging student teacher learning in video-framed and peer-sharing contexts

Since many studies that use video to support teacher learning are situated in strongly guided contexts and encourage particular kinds of thinking, we still know very little about how more loosely guided contexts can support teachers to think about the dilemmas of practice associated with their own goals by reflecting about video. This study explores how video-based and peer-based reflections about one’s own and others’ practices both indicate and guide the development of teachers’ change-directed thinking when they are sequenced before supervisor feedback. Six secondary preservice teachers reflected about peer-evaluated mini-teaching and videotaped field-based teaching in the prestudent teaching term and then about videotaped teaching alone, with peers, and alone again with supervisor feedback in the student teaching term. These reflections were coded by their subject, degree of reform-mindedness, and tendency toward three foci (player, stance, and source). Patterns in their ‘higher focus’ codes across the three reflective resources during student teaching showed how teachers were developing the goals they espoused in the fall term. Teachers situated their learning in contexts where the degree of scaffolding matched their degree of readiness for change, which was better characterized by their tendency toward subjects and foci that were less ‘one-sided’ than by their tendency toward only reform-minded (standards-based) thinking. While teachers whose reflections were intermediately different from the peer group were better supported by it, most teachers found direct support from the self-video and/or peer-video contexts to advance change-directed thinking associated with their own goals for teaching. The findings reveal not only how goal-related teacher learning can be powerfully supported with loosely guided video-framed contexts, but also how the diversification and/or expansion of teachers’ reflections across the categories used in this study provide robust indicators of both the content and efficacy of their change-directed thinking.