Grandmothers providing care for grandchildren: Consequences of various levels of caregiving

This article explores the differences between grandmothers who provide diff erent levels of caregiving responsibility for a grand child. One-hundred an d one grandmothers participated in the study: 23 who were providing full-ti me care for a grandchild, 33 who were providing part-time care Sor a grandc hild and 45 who visited a grandchild regularly but had no caregiving respon sibility Sor that grandchild Results showed that the grandchild's behavior problems macle the largest impact on rite grandmother increasing her feelin gs of burden and parenting stress and decreasing her grandparenting satisfa ction. In addition, full-time caregiving grandmothers experienced moi-e bur den and parenting stress and less grandparenting satisfaction than part-tim e caregiving grandmothers. Full-time caregiving grandmothers also reported less life satisfaction than other grandmothers in the study. An area that d eserves attention in Suture studies is how the relationship with the adult child (the grandchild's parent) influences rite stress, burden, and satisfa ction associated with full-time caregiving.