• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.62
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• pp.71-102
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to enrich our understanding of the family utilizing childcare by grandmothers and the elderly women by examining the experience of grandmothers who refused to support raising their grandchildren. The researcher focused on grandmothers who have been in charge of caring the family in the main and tried to explore the reasons for their decision not to take care of their grandchildren. For the purpose, Research participants were seven elderly women who have refused raising of their grand-children. Data were collected by in-depth interview and analyzed based on the phenomenological method. As results, it turned out that the elderly women refused caring of their grandchildren due to the burden of parenting and the rejection of an extended mother role, and the fear of family conflicts, but they felt sorry about their refusal of a request for caring support from their adult children. Second. these decisions caused various dynamics of the family members, and they were experiencing psychological difficulties. Third, elderly women perceived raising of grandchildren as a task of adult children or a problem for which the society should be accountable, and felt that the family and the society have shifted the responsibility to them. This research result confirms that a new generation of the elderly women have emerged who have different viewpoints on caregiving. It also presents a necessity to reflect the viewpoints of elderly who are mainly concerned when establishing a policy of caregiving. Based on this finding, this study also presents implications regarding support for family utilizing childcare by grandmothers and support for the elderly women.

• 한국노년학
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.587-609
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate parenting experiences among grandmothers raising their grandchildren from grandmothers' perspective, and a variety of their physical health, psychological and social challenges they were facing in everyday life. In addition, this study explored new issues, changes, and difficulties grandparents and their grandchildren were going through during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven grandmothers raising their grandchildren without their cohabiting parents participated in an in-depth interview, and the qualitative date were obtained using semi-structured questionnaires. Analyses identified 5 main categories: 1) my emotion, worries, and coping with parenting grandchildren, 2) difficulties and obstacles facing in real life of the parenting, 3) conflicts and coping with growing grandchildren who showed new characters, 4) relationships and emotions among grandparents, parents, and grandchildren, and 5) needs and desires toward social services and support. Sixteen themes and 60 sub-themes were also derived. The majority of grandmothers expressed diverse difficulties in their dail y lives including ambivalent emotions regarding grandchild-rearing(rewards and burden), economic hardships, physical health limitations, and a lack of communications with their grandchildren. Further, findings indicated profound generation conflicts which had been even deepened during school close period in COVID-19 pandemic and had been associated with increased hours of using internet and playing computer games. The top priority of the social service needs among interviewed grandmothers was learning support for their grandchildren. Emotional support and social support to cover their lack of family interactions, and financial support were the next of their desired social services. Implications to improve social services for grandparent-headed families are discussed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.779-791
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• 2010

This study was to examine the differential impacts of social experiences and conditions on health among men and women aged 65 years or older, using data of the "2004 Survey on living Status of the Korean Elderly". The outcome variables were any disability, self-rated health, multiple morbidity, and self-rated quality of life. Multiple Classification Analysis was used to test the differential exposure to social factors contributes to gender difference in health. Gender differences in vulnerability of each individual socioeconomic, psycho-social, and behavioral factors for health were assessed by comparing logit coefficients in men and women. I found that gender difference in exposure to social factors contribute to inequalities in health between older men and women, however, gender inequalities remained after controlling for differential exposure except in case of quality of life. In addition, gender differences in health were further explained by differential vulnerabilities to social factors between men and women. Findings of this study may affirm the importance of further and deeper investigation of gender differences in health in later life. Gender sensitive approach in health planning and polices for the elderly is also suggested.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.65-84
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• 2010

This study examined poor custodial grandparents' life story and care-giving experiences of their grandchildren. 8 grandparents were selected and in-depth interview and participant observation method were used. They showed a miserable life from the birth and discriminative experience of the deprivation of educational opportunities as childhood nadir experiences. They showed the regret for their inability as youth/midlife low point and financial difficulty as old life nadir experiences. In terms of care-giving experiences of their grandchildren, they showed non-voluntary care-giving, anxiety for the generational continuation of hardship, and lack of familial assistance. Poor custodial grandparents also used family-centered value, community-based social assistance, and self-assurance through their sacrifice as their adjustment strategy. Several research themes such as the importance of basic trust in childhood, the experience of financial difficulties, the importance of community-based social assistance, and self-assurance through their sacrifice were suggested for further research.

• 한국노년학
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.1147-1164
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• 2008

There has been a sharp increase in the number of grandmothers raising grandchildren in contemporary Korean society. However, little is known about the complexity of the experiences of the custodial grandparenting. Most of the studies mainly examined burden/cost and have paid little attention to the positive aspects of custodial grandparenting. In order to overcome this limitation of previous research, this study aims 1) to examine not only the costs but also the rewards of custodial grandparenting and to explore related factors, 2) to develop the typology based on relative rewards-burden perception of grandmothers about custodial grandparenting and explore the group differences. The data were gathered from 449 grandmothers raising their grandchildren as a primary caregiver, using a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, hierarchical multiple regression and ANOVA, with SPSS WIN 12.0 program. Main findings are as follows: First, custodial grandmothers report not only care-giving burden such as physical burnout and economic burden but also various rewards such as joy of watching their grandchildren grow and feeling good about themselves to be a help with their adult children, i.e. grandchildren's father or mother. Second, factors related to the level of perceived cost of grandparenting are different from the factors affecting the positive aspects of grandparenting. Third, results of the two by two cross-tab analysis based on the level of rewards and burden show that about 32 percent of the grandparents belong to Type II group(high rewards-low cost). This result is quite contrary to the assumption of previous research focusing mostly on cost and burden of custodial grandparenting. Fourth, four groups were different in terms of grandmother & grandchildren's characteristics. Implications of these results are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.185-208
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• 2012

The goal of this study is to take a look at grandmothers' experience raising children with a focus on the children's generation and the grandchildren's generation. To do this, we conducted in-depth interviews with three grandmothers who raised their children and their grandchildren. As a result, grandmothers' experience raising children was shown in three categories: change in the raising environment, the raising culture, and the sense of value of raising children. These results suggest that the raising experience of grandmothers who have raised children in the past and are currently raising children again are being changed by the transition in raising experience, raising culture, and sense of value of raising children.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.73-97
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• 2011

This study examined what factors were associated with psychological well-being of grandparents providing daily care to their grandchildren. More focus on the role of various mediators such as caregiving perception and resources were given to investigate the complicated relationships between providing care and psychological function. I used the nationally representative data from the '2008 Korean National Survey of Welfare Need in the Elderly'. Results showed that there were diverse circumstances of caregiving. Grandparents who cared their grandchildren on behalf of dual career parents emerged predominantly from them. Findings also suggested that type of caregiving was related to external factors. Grandparents shouldering greater responsibility for their grandchildren showed lower levels of resources such as financial conditions and social support, and more negative perception of caregiving, which in turn was associated with lower psychological well-being. Finally, more financial resource and neighborhood support directly influenced more positive perception of caregiving. To enhance resources and empower grandparents raising their grandchildren, community-based intervening mechanism incorporating various environments and effective services to meet the needs of grandparents should be discussed in future studies.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.239-269
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to understand the different views of grandparent's that are rearing children from the grandmother and working mom as co-caregivers by studying conflicts and the experience made by grandmothers by rearing children through a phenomenological approach, and to help to build healthy relationships and furthermore to promote a healthy educational environment. Data were collected from six working mothers from a child care center in Gyeonggi, and their six grandmothers who were rearing grandchildren through in-depth interviews, emails and observation based on the instruction of semi-structured interviews. For analysis, a phenomenological analysis method is used. As a result, 78 meaning units, 15 sub-elements and 6 theme categories were drawn. Theme categories were (1) grandmothers' rearing experience; perform a double-role through grandchildren-rearing (2) working moms' rearing experience; conflicts over ideologue of motherhood (3) grandmothers' rearing positive effect: increasing grandmothers' efficacy and intimate relationships with grandchildren (4) working moms' rearing positive effect: reducing working moms' children-rearing stress (5) negative effect: increasing grandmothers' children-rearing stress and working moms' low children-rearing efficacy (6) rearing conflicts: the two mothers' conflicts over children-rearing values. Through the study, it implies that social intervention is needed to solve the conflicts between two mothers over the rearing attitudes and methods as understanding and intervention is needed.

• Proceedings of the KHMA Conference
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• 2012.11a
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• pp.187-213
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• 2012

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.23 no.3 s.75
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• pp.103-114
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• 2005

The number of grandparents who have responsibility for raising their grandchildren is growing. The present study examines the extent of this phenomenon and some of the issues these grandparents face in surrogate parenting. The sample consists of 69 grandparents(63 grandmothers and 6 grandfathers) of grandchildren who have lived with them at least 6 months without their parents. The grandparents raising grandchildren reported that caregiving bought negative changes in relations with their own children, economic situation and health condition. They concerned most about the issue of good mannered behavior of grandchildren and making good friends and needed social supports in terms of house cleaning and cooking and transportation for after school activities. Caregiver burden was related to the number of family members, the degrees of life changes, economic hardship due to caregiving, grandchildren's school performance and the relations with granparents' own children.