Predictors of distress among grandmothers raising grandchildren: The role of community service utilization and social supports

The study examined the relationships of five predictor variables of number of grandchildren, length of time raising the grandchildren, income of the family, number of support and perceived social support to distress and parent-child dysfunctional interactions between grandmothers raising grandchildren. A quantitative method was utilized to correlate the findings using a multiple regression analysis in predicting distress and or parent-child dysfunctional interactions. The study focused on grandmothers who are between 50 and 70 years of age raising grandchildren without the assistance of the biological parents and taking care of at least one child newborn to 17 years of age. Prior research indicated children raised in kinship families do not demonstrate life success and thus further investigation was warranted. Grandmothers were chosen, as often this population will engage in the responsibility of raising the children when a biological parent can no longer take care of the child or children. The results indicate number of grandchildren the grandmother is raising, length of time raising the grandchildren, and the income of the family are not predictive of grandmother distress or grandmother-child dysfunctional interactions. Perceived support was positively correlated with number of supports and dysfunctional interaction was positively associated with distress. A negative correlation was found between perceived support and distress and between number of supports and dysfunction. Findings indicated a predictive relationship between perceived social support and distress. Findings also indicated a strong predictive relationship between perceived support and grandmother-child dysfunctional interactions. These findings reflect a need for further study related to providing supports that are perceived as helpful to the grandmothers.