Exploring grandmother kinship caregivers' perceptions of caregiving experiences
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Abstract
Grandmothers stepping in as kinship care providers is a growing subset of foster care. This study provided new insight into the changes a child endures when receiving care from their grandmother through Bronfenbrenner’s ecological lens. Conceptualizing child development through Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model helps explain how human development can be influenced by a child’s constantly changing immediate and larger social systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). Our study reviews the foster care system; including relative or nonrelative care, which can be formal or informal, as well as congregate care. There are many strengths highlighted in kinship care. For instance, in previous research, children shared that kinship care provided a protective environment that supported emotional recovery and helped them cope with adverse life circumstances (Burgess et al., 2010; Geen, 2004). Also, kinship care provides children with permanence and stability within their microsystem. However, many obstacles arise during this type of caregiving placement. Specifically, kinship caregivers are more likely to be older and have fewer economic resources (Stein et al., 2014), have received fewer educational services (Sakai et al., 2011), and to be in worse physical health than non-kin caregivers (Liao & White, 2014). Therefore, it is imperative to learn more from the grandmother’s perspective, specifically the caregiving struggles and how this change has direct and indirect effects on the child’s microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. Through a qualitative study, the research team interviewed 12 grandmothers and used Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis guide to derive themes and subthemes from the data. This study found three main themes: challenges in caregiving, strengths in caregiving, and resources needed. Specific challenges discussed by the grandmothers were navigating relationships with biological parents, the lack of financial assistance, and the need for childcare. Some unique strengths found were that stability and safety were maintained in the child’s microsystem. Overall, this study offered insight into the child’s functioning in grandmother kinship care through the grandmother's perspective, while utilizing Bronfenbrenner’s ecological lens to examine each level of the child’s ecological system. This study's findings gave specific ideas on how to support grandmother kinship families in clinical settings and identified future research directions.
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Chapter 1 Introduction and review of the literature -- Chapter 2 Results -- Chapter 3 Discussion
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Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)