Wellbeing of Children at Risk: Granparents as Resources

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this research is to investigate how grandchildren experiencing adverse risk factors are benefitted by their relations with grandparents. In this formulation, grandparents are considered to be latent resources who help their grandchildren adapt to stressful events such as divorce, single parenting, negative parental attachment styles, and behavioral difficulties. The aims of the research are to better understand (1) how the investment of emotion, attention, and support by grandparents buffers the impact of family disruption and other stressors on the psychological, social, and material well-being of (a) pre-adolescent grandchildren as they make the transition to adolescence, (b) on adolescent children as they make the transition to young adulthood and beyond, and (2) how the investment in grandchildren has changed over the last quarter century of historical time, and whether grandparent involvement is more important to today's grandchildren than it was to an earlier generation of grandchildren. Outcomes include psychological well-being, such as self-esteem, depression, anxiety, affect balance, and socio-economic achievement such as occupational mobility. These aims will be addressed with two longitudinal data sets, one a long-term study of several cohorts of grandchildren taken from adolescent members of multigenerational families surveyed over the last 30 years (the Longitudinal Study of Generations), and the other a nationally representative five- and fourteen- year longitudinal study of adolescent and younger grandchildren and their parents (National Survey of Families and Households). Longitudinal models will predict change in prospective well-being outcomes as a function of the interaction between the nature of relationships with grandparents and family stressors/behavioral risk factors. Transitions over three, five, and fourteen years will be analyzed to investigate the short-term and enduring contributions that grandparents make to the well-being of the grandchildren. Multiple regression and structural equation modeling will be used to estimate the strength of these effects. This research will extend our understanding of the value of extended family relations by documenting how and with what effect grandparents buffer the impact of social stressors on the long-term well-being of grandchildren.