Turkish grandmothers’ experiences of caring for their grandchildren: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Grand motherhood is in some sense a universal role but its meaning varies greatly across countries and cultures: for instance, in terms of how grandmothers are involved in their grandchildren's lives. Therefore, this study examines 40 women's experiences of caring for their grandchildren in Turkey. Data were collected through a semi-structured Grandmother Interview Protocol designed by the researchers, and content analysis conducted to establish concepts and relationships that explained the data. The sampled grandmothers usually used positive expressions to describe caring for their grandchildren. Half said they had decided for themselves to take on this role, while the other half reported that this decision was taken jointly with the children's parents, or in response to a sense of obligation. Nearly all the grandmothers stated that they mostly did caring activities with their grandchildren during the day. Half said that caring for their grandchildren did not affect them, while the other half said it influenced them either positively or negatively. When the participants talked about the strategies they used to raise their grandchildren, they focused on the differences and similarities between the practices of their own and their grandchildren's parents, as well as on the details of their own practices as mothers and grandmothers. More than half of the grandmothers in this study said they received support from people around them as they raised their grandchildren.

KEYWORDS:

• Grandmothers
• grandchildren
• experiences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Prof. Dr. Fatma Tezel Şahin is working as a professor of preschool education at Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey. She has worked as a preschool teacher, a research assistant and an assistant professor for 23 years. Her research areas are parent education, men in early childhood education and parent involvement in ECE. She has many presentations and publications.

Lecturer Betül Kübra Şahin is working as a lecturer of Preschool Education at Gaziosmanpaşa University, Reşadiye Vocational School, Tokat, Turkey. She had been worked as a preschool teacher in private and public schools seven years. She has worked as a lecturer at Gaziosmanpaşa University since 2015. Her research areas are parent education, parenting styles and environmental education in early childhood education. She has many presentations and publications.

ORCID

Betül Kübra Şahin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1495-2227