Differential Impact of an Intervention for Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren

ABSTRACT

An increasing number of grandparents are assuming full-time parenting responsibilities for grandchildren when birth parents are unable to do so. This raises concern given the body of research that indicates grandparents raising grandchildren have a propensity for relatively high levels of psychological distress. The purpose of this present study was to determine the efficacy of a home-based, multidisciplinary intervention designed to decrease psychological distress in caregiving grandmothers, as well as to determine if select demographic characteristics influence intervention outcomes. A pretest posttest design was used that included 549 African American, predominantly low-income grandmothers raising grandchildren. Findings indicated that psychological distress scores decreased significantly from pretest to posttest. The intervention appears to have benefited distressed grandmothers who are young, unmarried, or unemployed. Implications of the findings for practice, policy, and future research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Grandparents raising grandchildren
• custodial grandparents
• children raising by grandparents
• kinship care
• psychological distress