Rural grandparenting through a family development lens: Implications for social work practice

ABSTRACT

The research explored the experiences of African American grandmothers residing in rural communities caring for their grandchildren, while suffering from chronic health issues. The research examined their health, physical functioning, wellbeing, social support, and resources of these grandmothers from a Family Development lens. Given the trends of providing care for a grandchild, it is widely recognised that caregivers may experience stress, burden, and the disruption of their well-being and social activities as well as the pressure associated with caregiving roles. The grandmothers reported challenges which included stressors such as health issues, financial difficulties, limited support, transportation difficulties, and disruption in social activities. This supports the body of scholarly findings from a national and international perspective in that these grandparents will need additional assistance in this caregiving role. However, a major finding in this study was that the grandmother’s health did not negatively impact their ability to care for their grandchildren.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural grandparenting
• family development theory
• grandparent’s health
• kinship care
• practice framework
• international kinship care

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tamara Woods

Tamara Woods, PhD, LCSW is an Assistant Professor of Social Work and the Bachelor of Social Work Director of Field Education at Fayetteville State University. Dr. Woods earned a PhD in 2013 and a Master of Social Work in 2004. Dr. Woods has taught in the BSW and MSW programs at Fayetteville State University.

Dr. Woods has over 25 years of practice experience and is a licenced clinical social worker in the states of North Carolina and Georgia. Her research interests include kinship care, foster care, military social work and mental health and substance abuse,

Dr. Woods has published in the areas of Kinship Care, Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment as well as Military Social Work. Her publications include International caregiving in rural communities: Implications for caregiver health, African American Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, and A call for military-centric social work education.