Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
The United States Census reported that 34%households in U.S have grandparents who raise grandchildren due to underlying conditions such as parental death, incarceration, substance abuse and more (Musil et al, 2009). Studies have found that grandmothers who raise children experience depressive symptoms which are contributed by family stresses and strain. From ecological perspective, each level of the Bronfenbrenner ecological model has factors which affect the grandparents in terms of economy, social and emotional wellbeing. The first level is microsystem and this involves the interaction setting and family influence. In the family system, grandparents develop depressive systems when the family members and peers reduce interaction and relationship. Grandparents need to create trust and mutuality with family members and friends for them to build a healthy personality. Failure to achieve the relationship and interaction affects the social and emotion wellbeing since they lack both instrumental and subjected support (Eshleman & Bulcroft, 2010).
The second level of the ecological model is mesosystem and this comprises influence from family interaction and outside setting such as schools, neighborhoods, sport teams and more. When these members fail to offer social and emotional support to the caregivers, they develop depressive symptoms which affect the well-being. Both family members and community should join hand in supporting the caregiver and failure to achieve the desired outcomes contributes to economic, social and emotional problems. The third level is exosystem and this comprises the family members and a larger contextual system where they both interact indirectly. For grandmothers to have a strong social connection with the society there should be a quality interaction with family members. However, failure to connect the caregivers with the community and failure of the community to offer a supportive care affects the well-being of the caregivers (Eshleman & Bulcroft, 2010). Grandmothers lack positive social systems and social networks and this affects their psychological well-being. The last level of the ecology system is macrosystem and this comprises a greater influence from the culture and community. This means that cultural concepts and community play role in setting a social paradigm and social expectations. In this case, failure of the community and support group to create funding programs, coordinate of care, inter-sectorial collaboration and quality health care will highly affect the well-being of caregivers (Musil et al, 2009).
Recommendations for supporting the grandparents include creating programs which will offer social support and psycho education. The programs should also be designed in a way that grandparents get an opportunity to interact with peer who experience similar challenges and this will act as a coping strategy. The programs should also include group therapy intervention which will allow the caregiver improve emotional well- being (Musil et al, 2009). To achieve effectiveness, social service agencies should provide transportation and other resources for grandparents to attend workshops. This will help them gain emotional support, parenting skill, parenting practices and coping strategies.
References
Eshleman J. Ross & Bulcroft A. Richard. (2010). The family. 12th edition. Pearson Higher Education
Musil, C., Warner, C., Zauszniewski, J., Wykle, M., & Standing, T. (2009). Grandmother caregiving, family
stress and strain, and depressive symptoms. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 31(3), 389–
