• 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.

• Korean Journal of Child Education & Care
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.71-83
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• 2019

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate variables which account for grandchild caregiving grandmothers' physical health satisfaction and leisure activity satisfaction. Methods: The sample included 141 grandmothers. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression. Results: Firstly, the variables that explained physical health satisfaction of grandchild caregiving grandmothers were educational level, family income, the number of grandchild, and caregiving conflict with adult child. When their educational level were higher, had more money, cared for grandchild more, and did not experience conflict with adult child, they showed the higher scores of physical health satisfaction. Secondly, as to leisure activity satisfaction of grandchild caregiving grandmothers, educational level and caregiving conflict with adult child were included. That is, they had higher educational level, and without caregiving conflict with adult child, grandchild caregiving grandmothers reported higher levels of leisure activity satisfaction. Conclusion/Implications: Based on these results, various implications and interventions were suggested.

• 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.

• 한국노년학
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.851-867
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to identify the caregiving reward of grandmothers raising their infant grandchildren and to examine factors influencing rewards in double-earner households. Data were collected from 323 grandmothers raising infant grandchildren who are under 6 years of age in double-earner households in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do and six metropolitan cities. According to the hierarchy multiple regression analysis, grandmothers' caregiving reward was found to be significantly high. It was also appeared that main factors of the rewards of grandmother were grandparents meaning, relationship with adult children and economic level. This study implies that improving grandparents meaning, relationship with adult children, and economic support may be a strategy to enhance the reward of grandmothers raising infant grandchildren. These findings suggest that there is a need to provide intervention and welfare policy for elderly caregiver.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.13-29
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• 2011

The objective of this study was to identify role types as they pertain to paternal and maternal grandmothers based on four role dimensions. To this end, a sample of 416 mothers of preschoolers was used. This study also examined correlates of and differences in the type of grandparents in terms of paternal and maternal types of grandmothers. Data were analyzed by K-means clustering, Chi-square, and multi-nominal logistic regression analysis. Grandmothers were classified into five distinct groups : influential, supportive, authority-oriented, passive, and detached types. Maternal grandmothers seemed to be relatively more involved with their grandchildren than paternal ones. The type of grandmothers varied as a function of socioeconomic status, the number of grandchildren, and geographical proximity for paternal grandmothers, and mothers' employment status and the closeness between grandmothers and mothers for maternal grandmothers. The results imply that grandmothers are currently becoming more active in their grandchildren's lives and that kinship in Korean society tends to lean to the maternal side.

• 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.36 no.3
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• pp.693-709
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• 2016

This study was to investigate depressive symptoms of caregiving grandmothers in South Korea and related factors focusing on caregiving characteristics. The data were drawn from the fourth wave of Korean Longitudinal Study on Ageing (KLoSA). The study participants were 3,291 grandmothers who had at least one grandchild, and we limited our analysis to 127 grandmothers who had provided care for their grandchild(ren) during the past one year. As for the depressive symptoms, Center for Epidemiological Survey-Depression 10(CES-D 10) short version were applied. Caregiving characteristics including caregiving duration by weeks per year, caregiving hours per week and the number of grandchildren who received grandmother care were examined. A multiple logistic regression was performed to detect association between caregiving characteristics and depressive symptoms while adjusting for general socioeconomic characteristics and health status of caregiving grandmothers. The longer duration of caregiving lowered the depressive symptoms and in contrast, those who spent more hours for providing care to their grandchildren were more exposed to the depressive symptoms. Physical pain significantly increased their depressive symptoms and low income level were more likely to induce depressive symptoms. More detailed studies on grandchild caregiving patterns among grandmothers were needed. Also, tailored support policy and services should be considered to alleviate their burden and depression in the future.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.363-375
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the difference of grandchild care experience and psychological health between grandfathers and grandmothers, and the effects of grandchild care experience on the psychological health of them. The objects of this study were 371 grandparents who were living in Seoul and Gyeonggi provinces and caring for children aged 3~5. The results of this study were as follows: First, grandfathers performed more basic needs fulfilling, active parent, and educational role and felt more psychological well-being and generativity. Second, both grandfathers and grandmothers had higher generativity as they carried out more social emotional support and educational roles. For grandmother, the more the role of fulfilling the basic desire and social emotional support, the higher the psychological well-being. For grandfather, however, the four care roles did not affect the psychological well-being.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.45-59
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effects of social supports on the relationship between child-rearing burden and psychological well-being among grandmothers. Data was collected from 249 grandmothers raising preschooler grandchildren who live in Gwangju by self-reported questionnaires. The method used for data analysis was structural equation modeling analysis using SPSS 22.0 and Amos 22.0. The results of this study revealed that child-rearing burden influenced social supports of grandmothers. Social supports influenced psychological well-being of grandmothers. Child-rearing burden influenced psychological well-being of grandmothers. The structural equation modeling analysis indicated that social supports partially mediated the relationship between child-rearing burden and psychological well-being.