Learning About Leaders: Exploring and Measuring Leadership Qualities in Grandparents and Other Relatives Raising Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe leadership qualities of grandparents and other relatives raising children and to determine if the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) is appropriate for assessing leadership for grandparents and other relatives raising children. This study reports the results of the LPI and a factor analysis to describe leadership qualities and test psychometric properties of the LPI. Subjects are 60 kinship caregivers attending advocacy trips to a state legislature to speak to policymakers about their issues. Results indicate that grandparents and other relatives view themselves as leaders. The principal axis factor analysis with varimax rotation extracted a five factor solution. The solution has good internal consistency and split-half reliability is robust. It appears that the LPI is a promising measure for use with kinship caregivers. More interventions are needed to foster the important quality of leadership among kinship caregivers.

KEYWORDS:

• grandparents and other relatives raising grandchildren
• kinship care
• leadership