The Research On Social Support System Of Grandparents Parenting Children Of 3-6 Years Old

Grandparents social support are defined as the behavior of help and support provided by the individuals or government of grandparents interpersonal networks to grandparents, which is the main fosterer of young children, in the process of education for young children. It concentrates on grandparents, and composed of grandparents and people contacting with them and contact between them(supporting activities). The social support to grandparents in the process of upbringing young children can improve the level of grandparents rearing children, influence parenting behavior of grandparents, and thus have an effect on the development of young children.In this study, we take 350 grandparents of young children in three kindergartens of Zhoukou City, Henan Province as the research object, through the combination of questionnaires and interview to analysis and study the current situation of social support to grandparents, to reveal the composition and characteristics of current social support systems, as well as the factors of access to social support and the difficulties and needs grandparents facing. The results show that:(1) Grandparents breeding 3-6 years old children have smaller social support networks, mainly in the 1-2 individual-based. The main providers of social support are their relatives, friends and other people in close contact with them, so the social support -net of grandparents needs to spread. (2) Social support, which grandparents breeding 3-6 years old children can get, has the core of family support, and focuses on relations and friends as a link of the informal social support, and gets less help and support from the formal social support systems. So the social support and help grandparents can get from the formal institutions is very limited.(3) All kinds of social support to grandparents breeding 3-6 years old children (including instrumental support, information support and emotional support) are mainly supported by the family and individuals, the providers of social support are spouses-other Family members-relatives-friends-colleagues, Although this support is flexible and targeted, but lack of organization, so it is difficult to integrate them into the effective community resources.(4) Grandparents breeding 3-6 years old children use the social support inefficiently, which is provided by related agencies. It indicates that grandparents lack access to the outside world for support, on the other hand, it also indicates that the resources of social support are very limited to grandparents. (5) In the process of breeding children, the main reason of grandparents get little social support are the inadequate social support system, the factors of themselves are important ones.Based on the study, we recommend the government should build a relatively complete social support system for grandparents rearing 3-6 years old children. That is, strengthening the function of formal social support system and perfecting informal social support system to promote a better development of grandparents and children.