Rural versus urban residence as an influence on grandparent caregivers’ needs for service

ABSTRACT

The present study explored the impact of rural (n = 26) versus urban (n = 49) environments on perceived needs for services among grandparent caregivers, wherein persons participated in focus groups targeting their needs and concerns and/or completed a mailed survey. While findings suggested substantial similarity across rural and urban persons in unmet needs, areas of difficulty, and service barriers, rural grandparents who reported their health to be fair or poor reported the greatest unmet needs and experienced the widest array of problem areas, while the opposite was true for urban grandparent caregivers. With few exceptions, sociodemographic factors failed to predict unmet needs, array of problem areas, and barriers. The practice and policy implications of these findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Grandparent caregivers
• needs for service
• urban versus rural living

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the North Central Texas Area Agency on Aging.