Feature

Friday, November 11, 2011

February, 2000 - When the grandchild moves in, grandpa heads for the bar, according to a recent study by three sociologists who found that surrogate grandfathers tend to escape from their homes once grandchildren move in. However, they also seek advice from relatives and friends. Grandmothers, on the other hand, seek and find instrumental supports.

The study by Maximiliane E. Szinovacz, Stanley DeViney, and Maxine P. Atkinson looked at how the movement of grandchildren into and out of grandparents’ households influenced their psychological well-being. The study was reported in the November 1999 issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.

Grandmothers, generally, and White grandmothers more than others, reported a decline in church-related activities when they become surrogate parents. Surrogate parenting, however, increased instrumental supports for women from relatives and friends.

The study confirms the belief that grandchildren moving into and remaining in the household takes a toll on grandmothers, especially in early stages. "Long-term stays of grandchildren in the household do not appear to significantly induce more depressive symptoms in grandparents," the three social scientists pointed out, unless the grandchild’s parent also resides in the household. Nor did they find significant decline in depressive symptoms when grandchildren moved out. Rather when grandchildren leave the household grandfathers experience an increase in depressive symptoms. The study relies on analyses of the National Survey of Families and Households of which two waves have been collected.

The findings suggest that effects of surrogate parenting differ by gender. For most grandfathers, the surrogate parenting is typically as a spouse, and their enhanced bar/tavern visits could be an escape or a belief that there is someone else to look after the grandchildren. Grandfathers also seem to benefit from the grandchildren’s companionship. Grandmothers, on the other hand, take the main burden of childcare, and this burden apparently leads to stress symptoms. Long-term stays of grandchildren seems to be particularly difficult when the grandchild’s mother is also in the household.

The study looked at some of the problems that the surrogate parents are facing, and how it is affecting their well being and the well-being of their wards, an estimated 3.9 million children who were being raised by grandparents in 1997.

The Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences is a refereed publication of The Gerontological Society of America, the national organization of professionals in the field of aging.