Abstract
Evidence supports the positive role grandparents play in supporting their families and communities. As grandparents’ roles simultaneously diversify (e.g., family structural change) and intensify (e.g., grandparents as primary carers and sandwich generation) we need to explore the boundary conditions of this role. Using a grandparental investment framework, we investigated whether the strongest association in this field, the prominent role of maternal grandmothers (MGMs), can still be observed in the challenging family context of grandparents raising their grandchildren. A total of 530 grandparents raising their grandchildren in Western Australia, including 25% from the Indigenous community, completed the Grandcarer Survey (online or paper). To boost the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s voices, an appropriate tool was developed by Kurongkurl Katitjin, the Centre for Aboriginal Education and Research. Findings showed that MGMs were most likely to participate in this study (60%) followed by paternal grandmothers (26%), maternal grandfathers (9%) and paternal grandfathers (4%). Compared to all other grandparent types, MGMs provided more years of care and had the most complicated caring role. MGMs reported a younger age of grandchild(ren) coming into their care, more years caring for their grandchildren, and more grandchildren who continued to come and go from their care. The prominent role of MGMs was consistent regardless of geographical and cultural variation, the number of grandchildren and whether the Grandcarer was partnered. This study shows that even in challenging family situations where grandparents are raising grandchildren, maternal grandmothers continue to rise to the challenge for their family.
Presenters
David CoallCourse Coordinator/Senior Lecturer, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—Aging, Intergenerational Solidarity and the Polycrisis
KEYWORDS
Grandparents, Grandchildren, Family, Support, Grandparents, Raising, Grandchildren, Intergenerational, Caregiving
