How Raising Another Set of Kids Affects Grandmothers

Contact: Toni Searle, [email protected]

CLEVELAND -- More grandmothers are raising grandchildren for reasons such as divorce, drug and alcohol addiction, teenage pregnancy, and the increased number of women in the workforce.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 5 percent of all U.S. children and 12.3 percent of African-American children live with grandparents who are the primary caregivers. In some low-income urban communities the figure can reach 20 percent.

Carol Musil, assistant professor of nursing at Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, recently completed a study examining health, stress, coping, and social support in 58 grandmothers who live with one or more grandchildren and are the primary caregivers. She also studied 32 grandmothers who live with grandchildren but are not responsible for raising them, to determine whether differences exist between the two groups.

Musil examined whether the ages of the grandmothers and grandchildren, the number of grandchildren cared for, the length of time spent caregiving, and the grandmother's race had any impact on the relationship between stresses, coping, support, and health.

"Grandmothers as a group have not been studied much, and little is known about their health, the stresses they face, and how they cope if they are raising their grandchildren," she said. "Very little is known about grandmothers living in multigenerational homes. Only recently have we come to understand the contributions that grandparents, especially grandmothers make to families and to society."

Musil is the American Nurses Foundation 1996 Virginia S. Kelly Scholar named for President Bill Clinton's mother, who was a nurse. Musil's research was funded through a State of Ohio Research Initiation Grant and the American Nurses Foundation.

She recruited study subjects-all Cuyahoga County residents-through support groups, a hospital newsletter, and flyers. Three-fourths were African-Americans and the remainder were Caucasians. Grandmothers ranged in age from 39 to 82 with an average age of 54. Almost half were employed. Most were separated, divorced, or widowed. The grandchildren were between 3 weeks and 18 years old.

Grandmothers are often involved with the care of multiple grandchildren and may have both primary responsibility for raising some grandchildren as well as day care or babysitting responsibilities for others. Their reasons for assuming this responsibility vary-children who are orphaned, neglected, or abandoned; parents addicted to drugs; mothers holding multiple jobs; and parents with mental or physical health problems or who are divorced.

In her study, Musil used questionnaires asking subjects to assess their own health and to comment about their depression, anxiety, stress, coping, social support, and grandparenting skills.

"In the few studies that have been done, grandmothers tend to report relatively high depression, anxiety, and stress, but it is important to remember that many have complex family situations," Musil said. Some of these women are at risk for developing clinical depression, Musil noted.

Grandmothers with primary responsibility for their grandchildren often report limited financial resources and a lack of family and community support. This suggests a need for greater support services such as day care and respite care or possibly financial assistance, she said.

These grandmothers may experience more role-related "parenting" stress and more difficulty in "parent"-child interactions. Musil said that this is to be expected since these grandmothers are parent surrogates.

How grandmothers cope may be important. In general, individuals who cope by minimizing problems or avoiding them tend to have greater depression, she said. This is true for grandmother caregivers too.

They may feel trapped and restricted due to modifications in their lifestyle. Some may be dissatisfied with their relationship with their grandchild, or feel the child did not meet their expectations. Musil noted that this could be detrimental because many grandmothers with high parenting stress profiles are at increased risk for problems with their caregiving responsibilities.

"Many grandmothers are unprepared for the role they are undertaking, in part because raising children today is different than when they were raising their own children. " Musil said. "Others felt having their grandchildlren around kept them young."

A large number of grandmothers reported that they experienced many rewards in caregiving and were glad that they had the opportunity to do so.

"The most important advice I can offer to grandmother caregivers is to continue to take care of themselves." Musil said.

She recently received a $107,000 grant from the National Institute on Aging to study the health of grandmothers living in Northeastern Ohio.

Musil hopes that her study will lead to additional services, financial assistance, and health-related support for grandmothers who are raising grandchildren. Such support could also benefit the family.

-CWRU-