APPROVED: Bert Hayslip, Major Professor Paul Lambert, Committee Member Becky Glover, Committee Member Vicki Campbell, Chair of Department of Psychology Michael Monticino, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies THE ROLE OF RESILIENCE IN MEDIATING OUTCOMES ASSOCIATED WITH GRANDPARENTS RAISING THEIR GRANDCHILDREN Shanna R. Davis, B.S. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2009
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APPROVED: Bert Hayslip, Major Professor Paul Lambert, Committee Member Becky Glover, Committee Member Vicki Campbell, Chair of Department of
Psychology Michael Monticino, Dean of the Robert B.
Toulouse School of Graduate Studies
THE ROLE OF RESILIENCE IN MEDIATING OUTCOMES ASSOCIATED WITH GRANDPARENTS
RAISING THEIR GRANDCHILDREN
Shanna R. Davis, B.S.
Thesis Prepared for the Degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
December 2009
Davis, Shanna R. The role of resilience in mediating outcomes associated with
grandparents raising their grandchildren. Master of Science (Experimental Psychology),
December 2009, 42 pp., 1 figure, references, 61 titles.
The occurrence of custodial grandparents is increasing greatly. These grandparents face
added stress and many adversities that arise from caregiving. Findings of current research
tends to be mixed on the effects of grandparents raising grandchildren experience. Much
research concludes that grandparent caregivers experience negative declines in overall health
and well‐being, while other research points out that the caregiving role may actually be a
positive experience for the grandparent. The current study hypothesizes that mixed research
may be a result of varying levels of resilience in the custodial grandparent population. The
model proposed in this study looks at resilience as a mediator between several variables that
effect custodial grandparenting. The current sample consisted of 239 custodial grandparents.
A regression/correlation analysis was conducted on the data, and it was found that resilience
levels were significant in mediating the effects of grandparent caregiving.
ii
Copyright 2009
by
Shanna R. Davis
1
INTRODUCTION
Grandparents Raising Their Grandchildren
According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2001), as of the year 2000, nearly 2.4 million
children were being raised by their grandparents. This number has been steadily increasing
over the past decades and has now reached enormous proportions. According to Hayslip and
Kaminski (2005), since 1990 there has been a 30% increase in the number of children being
raised in grandparent‐headed households. Grandparents are usually asked to take custody of
their grandchildren due to a variety of serious issues within the family that include death of a
parent, divorce, child neglect, child abuse, drug addiction and alcoholism, teen pregnancy and
Staudinger, Marsiske and Baltes, stating that because adversity is unavoidable, especially in
later life, optimal functioning can only be achieved through the development and enhancement
of resiliency.
The purpose of the current study was to examine the mediating role of resiliency to help
better understand why some grandparent caregivers are better able to adjust to and handle the
added stresses of caring for their grandchild, while others experience more negative effects
associated with the caregiving role. The model (Figure 1), suggests the mediating role of
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resilience on 6 factors: child difficulty, parental stress, physical and mental health, stability and
role satisfaction, mental health attitudes, and adjustment. This study was based on the
assumption that resilience possibly mediated the negative effects of caring for a grandchild, and
that those individuals with higher scores on the resilience measure would report fewer negative
effects and less stress than those individuals who scored lower on the resilience measure.
When this study was begun, there was little research on the role of resiliency and how it may or
may not impact grandparent caregivers; however, Oburu (2005) suggested that social support
and coping styles possibly mediated the effects raising one’s grandchild could have on a
grandparent. It may be that both coping styles and social support can be attributed or linked to
a person’s level of resilience.
The sample in the current study consisted of 239 individuals from the Dallas Texas
metroplex, as well as a few other states and Canada. The majority of the sample was Caucasian
females with an average age of 58 years old. Participants were asked to complete a survey that
was made up of 18 measures, as well as a demographic information form.
Factor analysis was performed on the 18 measures to produce 8 factors; 3 independent
variables (IVs), 3 dependant variables (DVs) and 2 mediators. Child difficulty, physical and
mental health and life stability and role satisfaction composed the 3 IVs. The DVs consisted of
parental stress, adjustment and mental health attitudes. Resilience and parental efficacy were
the 2 mediators. Parental efficacy was run as an exploratory measure, in which it was used as a
mediator in place of resilience.
The findings indicate that resilience does appear to partially mediate the relationship
between grandchild difficulty and parental stress. Resilience also seems to partially mediate
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the relationship between life stress and adjustment I (negative adjustment), and life stress and
parental stress. Of the dependant variables here, mental health attitudes was the only one that
was not affected by resilience as a mediator. When exploring parental efficacy as a mediator,
the same conclusion was reached, only mental health attitudes were unaffected. Again, child
difficulties and parental stress, as well as life stress and adjustment 1 all showed that parental
efficacy was at least partially mediating such relationships. These results support the original
hypothesis that resilience mediates the negative impact raising one’s grandchild can have on
grandparent caregivers. These results thus suggest that individuals with more resilience
experience less stress and less negative effects of caring for a grandchild. They also indicate
that parental efficacy may also act as a mediator to buffer the negative impact caregiving has
on grandparents. Thus, individuals with higher levels of resiliency, as well as individuals with
higher parental efficacy report less stress associated with raising a grandchild, as well as less
overall adjustment difficulties.
Knowing that resilience helps to mediate negative experiences and effects may have
beneficial implications for both grandparent caregivers and grandchildren. Rogers and Henkin
(as cited in Edwards & Daire, 2006) proposed that grandparent caregivers’ emotional stability
and outlook were significantly correlated to the grandchild’s behavior. In this context the more
resilient a grandparent is, the better able he/she will be to deal with the impact of managing a
grandchild as well as cope with a changed life situation and, therefore, maintain a positive
outlook on life, in turn providing a more caring and stable atmosphere for the child, fostering
positive behavior in the child.
There has also been extensive research on the relationship between stress and illness
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among grandfamilies (Marx & Solomon, 2000), with results showing that increased stress leads
to an increase in illness. If grandparents are able to modify the negative effects of caregiving,
then they could reduce the stress they are experiencing and, in turn, possibly ward off future
health declines and illness. In addition to the positive effects resiliency may have on both
caregiver and grandchild, it has been shown that good mental health can add years to a
person’s life; people with good mental and emotional health tend to outlive those with poor
mental and emotional health (Hayslip, Panek & Patreick, 2007). Thus, grandparents may live
longer if they are more resilient.
Life span developmental theory argues that even older adults maintain the ability and
resources to adapt, learn, and modify their coping and problem solving skills, thereby
enhancing their resilience levels (Bergeman & Wallace, 1999). Grandparents can do a
multitude of things to help improve their resiliency as a caregiver (Hayslip, 2008):
* Educate themselves about the challenges of raising a grandchild; knowledge is power and strength. Learn to assess their own strengths and weaknesses, and ask for help when necessary.
* Seek out the support of others; do not allow themselves to become isolated from friends as they are a source of strength. Talk with others who are raising grandchildren; create a weekly get together or perhaps join a support group.
* Take care of their self physically; grandparents cannot care for their grandchild unless you are caring for their selves too.
* If married, nurture the relationship; purposefully make time for the both of them to spend alone time together.
* Do not ignore their own needs; do what gives them pleasure. Do not ignore the impact that raising a grandchild has on their marriage or relationships.
* Enroll in classes or programs that teach assertiveness and decision making skills.
* Do things everyday that empower them personally.
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* Become their own advocate, let people know about their needs.
Limitations
One limitation of this study is that it is not longitudinal. Therefore assumptions cannot
be made about how resiliency causally affects grandparents’ parental or personal adjustment in
the long run, or even the near future. Another limitation here is that the surveys were self‐
report measures; this is always an issue in studies that rely on self‐reports because there are no
controls for reporting bias and consequently, no means by which to ensure that all questions
are answered in the appropriate manner are avalible. Also, the present study relied on
volunteer grandparent caregivers; this is a limitation because grandparents who choose to
participate are very likely more resilient to begin with than grandparents who choose not to
participate; the fact that they are willing to participate suggests a desire to help and to be
helped. The sample was also composed of predominantly Caucasian grandmothers;
grandparents of different ethnicities, as well as grandfathers, may experience the the impact of
resilience on caregiving role in a significantly different manner.
Future Research
Future studies that examine resilience in grandparent caregivers may benefit from
exploring the longitudinal aspect of resilience on caregivers, as well as on the grandchild. It
would also be of interest to look at the differences across gender in caregivers as well as to
explore the impact of ethnicity and SES. Another direction that future research might take
would be to examine the impact that the gender of the grandchild may have on the caregiver.
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Summary
This study began with the hypothesis that grandparents who exhibited higher levels of
resilience would be better able to effectively cope with the negative effects of raising a
grandchild, and would therefore report less stress and less negative health effects due to
becoming a grandparent caregiver. This hypothesis was supported by the data collected.
Resilience was found to mediate the negative effects that caregivers reported. Along with
resilience, parental efficacy was also examined as an exploratory mediator, and it too was
shown to act significantly in mediating the negative effects of custodial grandparenting. The
current study supports and expands and past research, cited earlier in the text, examining
custodial grandparenting and the effects it has on the caregiver’s physical and mental health.
The issue of grandparent caregivers and the adversities they face is important due to the
increasing number of grandparent headed households. Empowering grandparents and
educating them on methods in which to increase their level of resiliency is beneficial to both
the caregiving grandparent and the grandchild that is living in a grandparent headed house
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