Abstract
Grandparents raising grandchildren struggle with high caregiving stress that negatively influences the older adults’ well-being. Surveys with 70 custodial grandparents were conducted in 2015–16 focusing on understanding needs of grandparent-headed families and factors related to grandparents’ mental health status. Majority of the sample (73%) was non-Hispanic white and the mean age was 63 years old (range: 45–79). Sixty seven percent of the grandparents reported a household income below $40,000 and 38% of them were raising more than one grandchild. The mean length of the caregiving was 6.7 years. Almost half of the grandparents rated their health as poor or fair, and one third of the grandparents reported a risk of clinical depression. Half of the grandparents reported five or more concerns in raising the child (i.e., finance and legal issues, health of a grandparent and a grandchild, and a grandchild(ren)’s education, etc.). Half of the grandparents disclosed some challenges in working with their grandchild(ren)’s school. Multiple regression analysis was ran to examine the contributions of age, ethnicity, income, number of grandchildren, duration of care, needs related to caregiving and grandchild’s school, and social support in accounting for grandparents’ depression. With all predictors in the equation, the model accounted for 28.8% of the variance in the grandparents’ depression (R2=.288; adjusted R2=.182). Among the predictors, social support was the only significant predictor of the grandparents’ depression (beta=-.354, p=.008). The result suggests the importance of development of programs strengthening grandparents’ social support systems to promote the caregivers’ well-being.