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ABSTRACT
This qualitative study investigated the perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of grandchildren living in multigenerational caregiving environments. In-depth, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with care recipients (grandparents), primary/secondary caregivers (parents), and auxiliary caregivers (grandchildren) from three multigenerational caregiving families. Six themes emerged from the data: (1) Grandchildren's perceptions of disease, (2) Grandchildren's perceptions of care recipient, (3) Caregiving activities performed by grandchildren, (4) Non-caregiving activities with grandparents, (5) Feelings related to providing care, and (6) Grandchildren's perceptions of parents' caregiving responsibilities. Each of these themes and corresponding categories and subcategories of meaning are preted. This study suggests that grandchildren were responsible for a variety of caregiving tasks and experienced a wide range of emotions in their role as auxiliary caregivers. Recommendations for caregiving families are provided.