• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.99-122
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to examine how providing care to grandchildren and the continuity of care affects the grandparents' perception on old-age support. Specifically, in this study, providing care is divided into three continuous types: did not provide care, provided care at one point in time and provided care at two points in time. This is done to investigate how the duration of providing care influences the perception on old-age support. The results show that grandparents providing care to their grandchildren prefer to reside with their own children in the future more often than those who do not provide care to their grandchildren. Furthermore, grandparents providing care to their grandchildren during two-time points and grandparents providing care during one-time point prefer to reside with their adult children in the future more than grandparents providing care not once during two-time points. Interestingly, grandparents who provide care to grandchildren during two-time points prefer to reside with their children in the future more frequently than grandparents providing care during just one-time point. These results suggest it is likely that grandparents recognize providing care to their grandchildren as an insurance in care and support for themselves in the future. Additionally, these results suggest that the family plays an efficient and flexible role to meet needs of family members through a reciprocal relationship in Korean society where the public sector is weak. These findings have suggested theoretical implications.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.69 no.1
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• pp.59-77
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to understand Korean women in later life by identifying the relationships between providing care for grandchildren and the health of women who aged above 50 years old. Focusing on the longitudinal patterns of providing care of grandchildren and physical and psychological health, this study used data from the second, third, fourth, and fifth waves of Korean Retirement and Income Study(KReIS) and regression to analyze the data. The following results were found. First, women who stopped providing care for grandchildren were more likely to have higher physical health status in later life than those who providing no care between the second wave to the fourth wave of the KReIS(p < .05). In addition, women who have continuously provided care for grandchildren were more likely to have lower physical health status at marginally significant level. However, there is no significant relationship between providing care for grandchildren and women's psychological health status. The findings of this study suggest that there are the different findings for the relationships between providing care for grandchildren and physical health status and psychological health status based on the longitudinal patterns of providing care of grandchildren. Lastly this paper discusses implications for future researcher and social welfare practitioners.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.185-203
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• 2017

Objective: The present study examined the perspectives of grandparents raising their grandchildren in an attempt to better understand grandparents' child-rearing experience while providing kinship foster care to their primary-grade grandchildren. Methods: Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews with eight grandparents who have raised one or two primary-grade (ages 8-10) grandchildren using a qualitative approach. Results: First, the participants viewed the reason for their kinship foster care as a failure for caring for their own children and accepted the present grandparent-care provision as their responsibility. Second, the participants communicated constant struggles with their own health and grandchild-care as well as positive/negative emotions associated with the care provision. Third, most of the participants did not fully understand the developmental needs of their primary-grade grandchildren. Fourth, the participants articulated concerns for their primary-grade grandchildren's learning, peer interactions, school adjustment, and extra-curricular activities. Lastly, the participants all agreed on hoping to raise grandchildren with good personality traits as members of a society and to have them fill the gap from the loss of their parents. Conclusion: Although most participants accepted the current circumstances as their obligation, they still noted difficulties in child-care provision. Given the developmental needs of grandchildren and the resource needs of grandparents, proper and continuous intervention approaches should be developed/provided.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.87-108
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• 2018

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate grandmothers' verbal and nonverbal behaviors during young grandchildren-grandmother picture book reading. Methods: Participants were fifty-two children aged 22-42 months and their grandmothers. The researcher visited participating children's homes or child care centers and videotaped grandchildren-grandmother book reading activities. Each grandmother read two picture books for each observation. Grandmother surveys were administered after the reading activities. Parent surveys were completed by parents and were returned to the researcher. Results: First, grandmothers began reading picture books to grandchildren when children were 6 to 11-months-old or 12 to 17-months-old. They spent 5 to 10 minutes or 10 to 15 minutes at a time reading books. Second, grandmothers' most frequent verbal behavior during young grandchildren-grandmother picture book reading was 'explaining,' followed by 'questioning,' and 'providing feedback,' in that order. Grandmothers' MLU-eojeol during grandchildren-grandmother reading was 2.56. Their most frequently used nonverbal behavior was 'pointing,' followed by 'gestures.' Lastly, there was a significant difference in grandmothers' verbal and nonverbal behaviors during grandchildren-grandmother reading, depending on the grandmothers' characteristics. Conclusion/Implications: Grandmothers use various verbal and nonverbal behaviors during grandchildren-grandmother picture book reading activities, and there are significant differences in grandmothers' verbal and nonverbal behaviors with grandchildren based on grandmothers' characteristics.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.1-24
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of grandmothers who provide child care services to their grandchildren and employed mothers who utilize child care by grandmothers, with regards to their relationships while exchanging the specific type of intergenerational support. The data for this study came from 42 in-depth, individual interviews with 21 pairs of employed mothers who had at least one child younger than elementary-school age and their mothers or mothers-in-law who had provided child care on a daily basis for their grandchildren. Our phenomenological analysis revealed that the grandmothers felt uncomfortable and overwhelmed when caring for their grandchildren and that they considered this activity to be different from caring for their own children by nature. However, the grandmothers wanted to help their adult children based on their feeling of "boo-mo-ma-eum" (meaning parental heart, i.e., love or care). The employed mothers perceived that they were substantially dependent on the grandmothers by receiving help with child care and housework. Reliance on grandmothers was inevitable and beneficial to these mothers. Dynamic intergenerational living arrangements enabled the dependent relationships. The grandmothers set specific boundaries pertaining to current and future child care so that they would not take on too much responsibility for child care. The mothers used various strategies that contributed to stable child care support from the grandmothers. Providing financial remuneration was an important strategy that had symbolic relational meanings, such as expressing gratitude, rather than financial meanings.

• 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.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.387-403
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• 2015

This study examines the relationships between grandparenting roles, elderly generativity, and depressive symptoms. Data were collected from 129 grandmothers who helped raise grandchildren attending daycare centers. Grandparenting roles were assessed as generational transferers, caretakers, emotional supporters, and educators. Elderly generativity and depressive symptoms were evaluated based on the Loyola Generativity Scale and CES-D (Center for Epidemiological Studies on Depression Scale), respectively. Data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, and regression analysis methods. According to the results, grandmothers were most likely to play a role as caretakers, and there were differences across factors correlated with grandparenting roles. More specifically, daily hours spent on grandparenting and years of grandparenting were related to the caretaker role, and a high level of education was related to the educator role. Poor health was correlated with the generational initiator role. According to correlation and regression analyses, grandmothers who had access to more economic resources and who served as educators, emotional supporters, or generation initiators were more likely to show generativity. In addition, the higher the generativity, the less likely the depressive symptom was. These results have important implications for developing programs that can help grandparents raise preschool-aged grandchildren and suggest some interesting avenues for future research.

• Journal of Family Relations
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.51-74
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• 2017

Objectives: This study observes how providing family support - financial, emotional, and instrumental - is related to depression in babyboom women. Method: I analysed data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families 5th wave, collected by the Korean Women's Development Institute. The analysis was conducted using regression, t-test, Chi-square test, frequency analysis, and Pearson's correlation analysis. Results: Financial support for grown-up children, either married or unmarried, increases depression in babyboom women. In the dimension of instrumental support, caring for grandchildren reduces babyboom women's depression. It implies that contact with grandchildren is perceived as an emotional support rather than a physical burden. The results of this study also show that babyboom women are comforted by living with their own parents, but not by living with parents-in-law. The most impressive observation, however, is in the dimension of emotional support, which showed that the conversation with elderly parents reduces baby-boom women's depression, but that the conversation with married children increases it. The opposite directions in the effects seem to be related to the subjects of the conversations. The subjects of the conversation with children are mostly about problems and agenda of the children, while those with elderly parents are mainly about parents' health and care for each other. Conclusions: The results of the analyses suggest that babyboom women should become less involved with their grown-up children's lives. It also calls for the societal efforts to be put into building up the support system, especially for eco-boom generation, to reduce babyboomer's burden of supporting the children.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.45-52
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• 2017

This study examined data from National Pension Research Institute's 5th Panel Survey on Security for the Aged in 2013. The subjects of this study are middle-aged and older people aged 50 or older providing care for parents or grandchildren. The subjects are total 226, 53 parent caregivers and 173 grandchild caregivers. According to the results, both types indicate low depression, and their life satisfaction records over 3 out of 5. Grandchild caregivers show higher life satisfaction than parent caregivers. Any of the factors influencing depression and life satisfaction are not found to be significant in parent caregivers. Grandchild caregivers' educational level and health condition influence depression negatively and life satisfaction positively.

• 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.