Grandmothers, Caregiving, Families, and Transitions

祖母、照顾、家庭和过渡

• 批准号: 7283795
• 负责人: Carol M. Musil
• 金额: $ 30.38万
• 依托单位: CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-04-01 至 2009-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7283795
• 关键词: Affect; Age; American; Area; Caregivers; Caring; Child; Communication; Data; Data Collection; Elements; Evaluation; Family; Family dynamics; Family health status; Funding; Health; Health Status; Home environment; Intervention; Interview; Knowledge; Life; Link; Mails; Measures; Mental Depression; Mental Health; Modeling; Nature; Numbers; Ohio; Outcome; Parents; Pattern; Patterns of Care; Perception; Personal Satisfaction; Pilot Projects; Play; Prevalence; Purpose; Questionnaires; Reporting; Research; Resources; Risk; Role; Rural; Sampling; Social support; Stress; Telephone; Time; United States National Institutes of Health; Woman; Work; Youth; aged; caregiving; cohort; comparative; comparison group; coping; depressive symptoms; design; experience; grandparent; improved; innovation; interest; intergenerational; therapy design

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): More than 5.2 million American grandmothers serve as caregivers for their grandchildren, whether as a primary caregiver to grandchildren or living in a multigenerational home, and have a key role in family functioning. Prior work by our research team indicates that primary caregiver grandmothers report more depression, worse physical health and more problems in family functioning than non-co-resident grandmothers, and both primary and multigenerational grandmothers report intra-family strain. Our ongoing study also revealed three interesting findings: first, very few studies have examined the perceptions of children being raised by grandparents; second, there are a surprising number of transitions in grandmother caregiving status; and third, the perceptions of children and their connection to family dynamics has largely been overlooked. We are proposing to combine these three important findings in our next study, investigating the effect of these transitions on both grandmothers and their grandchildren. The specific aims of this continuation study are to: 1) extend the evaluation of the grandmother caregiving experience across time, including caregiving transitions; 2) evaluate grandchildren's perceptions of family functioning, support and depressive symptoms and compare these data with data from the grandmother, and 3) examine the effects of caregiving transitions on grandchildren, and 4) identify perceived needs for interventions. Using a longitudinal, comparative design and the Resiliency Model of Family Stress, the study will examine stress, health status, and resources of social support and resourcefulness in a sample of approximately 400 women in three groups differentiated by grandmothering status. Data will be collected by mailed questionnaire two times (at one-year intervals) from grandmothers, and by telephone from grandchildren (ages 9-16) in all caregiving groups. Results from our pilot study show that children have a wealth of information to contribute to our understanding of family dynamics. Narrative interviews with grandchildren who experience a caregiver transition will be conducted to illuminate how these transitions affect the grandchild and the family. This study will contribute to our understanding of the mental health and family functioning of grandmothers living with grandchildren across time and provide information needed to identify the timing, target and context for interventions to support the health of grandmothers and grandchildren at-risk.

描述(由申请人提供)：超过520万名美国祖母担任孙子孙女的照顾者，无论是孙子孙女的主要照顾者，还是生活在多代家庭中的人，在家庭运作中发挥着关键作用。我们研究小组之前的工作表明，与非共同居住的祖母相比，主要照顾者的祖母报告了更多的抑郁、更糟糕的身体健康和更多的家庭功能问题，并且初级和多代祖母都报告了家庭内部的压力。我们正在进行的研究还揭示了三个有趣的发现：第一，很少有研究考察人们对由祖父母抚养的孩子的看法；第二，祖母照顾孩子的身份发生了惊人的转变；第三，人们对儿童的看法及其与家庭动态的联系在很大程度上被忽视了。我们建议在下一项研究中结合这三项重要发现，调查这些转变对祖母和孙子的影响。这项延续研究的具体目的是：1)扩展对祖母照顾经历的评估，包括照顾转变；2)评估孙辈对家庭功能、支持和抑郁症状的看法，并将这些数据与祖母的数据进行比较；3)检查照顾转变对孙辈的影响，以及4)确定干预的感知需求。利用纵向比较设计和家庭压力弹性模型，这项研究将检查压力、健康状况、社会支持和足智多谋的来源，样本约为400名妇女，分为三组，按祖母地位区分。数据将通过邮寄的问卷从祖母那里收集两次(每隔一年)，并通过电话从所有照看小组的孙子(9-16岁)那里收集。我们的初步研究结果表明，儿童拥有丰富的信息，有助于我们理解家庭动态。对经历照顾者转变的孙子孙女进行叙述性采访，以阐明这些转变如何影响孙子孙女和家庭。这项研究将有助于我们了解随时间推移与孙子孙女一起生活的祖母的心理健康和家庭功能，并提供必要的信息，以确定支持高危祖母和孙子的健康的干预措施的时机、目标和背景。