CUSTODIAL GRANDPARENTING AND THE IMPACT OF GRANDCHILDREN WITH PROBLEMS ON ROLE SATISFACTION AND ROLE MEANING

This study compared three groups of grandparents, attempting to disent angle grandparental role demands from child-specific problems as sourc es of role-specific and grandchild-relationship distress. Those grandp arents raising grandchildren reported to demonstrate neurological, phy sical, emotional, or behavioral problems exhibited the most personal d istress, the least role satisfaction and role meaning, and the most de teriorated grandparent-grandchild relationships. Custodial grandparent s raising grandchildren reported to have few difficulties also differe d in the ways listed above from those grandparents not raising their g randchildren and those raising grandchildren displaying problems. For men, but not women, more positive grandparent meaning was associated w ith raising a grandchild. Significantly, custodial grandparents were m ore likely to be raising boys, suggesting that boys may be either more difficult for grandparents to raise or that boys react more negativel y to the adverse circumstances under which grandparents assume care.