The Role of Grandparents in the World - Research Paper Example

? Research Topic Affiliation: Introduction The role of grandparents in most parts of the world has slowly but steadily been shifting. Instead of them simply being grandparents, they have reversed their roles to act as parents. Some of the identified reasons for this dramatic shift of roles is the increasing number of young, unmarried teen mothers, the HIV and AIDS pandemic which has wiped out most young parents leaving the children orphaned, the increasing number of divorce cases, child abuse, drugs and substance abuse to the extent of parents neglecting their children and even incarceration of the parents (Goodman and Silverstein, 2006). The role of custodial parents by the grandparents is a multiethnic issue as the literature review section will indicate. The research in discussion below will also point out the different effects the role of being custodial parents has on different individuals and especially the grandparents and the grandchildren and what efforts if any has the state taken to deal or assist in this matter. Literature Review Overview The US census results of year 2005 were the first to openly show interest in the growing number of grandparents who have become custodians of their grandchildren. According to those results, there was an average of 5.7 million grandparents living with their grandchildren and acting as their parents. In line with multiethnic issues, the results further indicated that of the 5.7 million grandparents, 8% were African Americans, 16% were Hispanics and the rest were Caucasians. In a large state like Colorado which also is a multiethnic state, the results are almost similar with those indicated nationally and this statistics have been on the increase (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). Theoretical model The best theory to explain the change of grandparents’ role to that of custodians of their grandchildren is the life course theory. This theory asserts that changes in the structural, cultural or social changes in the present lives of individuals affects the future decisions and even events that will take place. These changes may occur to any particular individual and once they occur, they change the whole life course of that particular individual. According to Phua and Kaufman, 2008, it is with this light therefore that the life course of grandparents change and they now adopt the role of parents for their grandchildren. For the Hispanics and African American for example, the immigration, racial stereotypes and other ethnic difficulties of living in a foreign land contributes to the life course changes as it leads to changes in their social, cultural and structural lives which are contributing factors to the reasons why grandparents are left with custodial burden (Phua and Kaufman, 2008). Impacts of custodial grand parenting Numerous literatures have pointed out the impacts associated with this research topic to both the grandparents and the grandchildren. According to the National Institute of Mental Health and Population Reference Bureau, grandchildren who are in custody of their grandparents grow up with more emotional and behavioral problems compared to those raised by the parents (Scommegna, 2012). This is especially difficult when it comes to adolescent grandchildren. The research also indicates that in homes where there is low income (mostly among African-Americans and Hispanics), the behavioral problems are likely to escalate. The problem however is not so rampant among the whites majorly because most of their custodial care starts when the children are young. Research findings by America Association for Marriage and Family Therapy indicate that grandparents also face their share of different impact. Some of these identified impacts include the legal problem and process of acquiring custody of their grandchildren. This is especially so in case of divorce where the parents are still alive. The other is the financial impact. Most grandparents are retired and therefore have no steady flow of income to support others. Majority rely on their retirement benefits, life savings and even support from government, their children and other well-wishers. When they acquire custody of their grandchildren, the financial problem becomes only becomes worse (Peluso, Watts and Parson, 2012). The US census reports have indicated that the impact of the grandparents becoming custodians is a multiethnic issue. Depending on the family fortune and previous incomes of the grandparents, the whites face less financial challenges compared to the Hispanics most of whom face more challenges than the African-American. The common impact however identified for all ethnic groups is the personal challenges and especially health problems (physical and mental) that most grandparents experience but which are mostly neglected in custodial issues. Support to custodial grandparents There are various organizations (governmental and non-governmental) that offer support to such grandparents with custodial responsibilities. The government’s department of social services is among one of them which offers financial assistance to such grandparents. Religious organizations and others like the America Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, offers counseling services to both the grandparents and grandchildren and especially on emotional problems. There are also health insurance covers specifically for such grandparents like the CHAMPUS for example which covers even the grandchildren. The above support is offered to all needy grandparents no matter the ethnic background. Methodology Mixed method This research is going to employ the use of mixed method, which is using both qualitative and quantitative methodology. The quantitative methodology is effective in collecting information and showing statistical evidence and especially when it comes to the multiethnic differences in statistics. The methodology will also be useful during data analysis. Quantitative methodology is effective in this research as the research is mostly narrative based with sections on comparison and impacts which require narrative form of explanation and analysis. Research questions One of the research questions that this research seeks to answer is what are the impacts of the custodial grandparents? And the other research question is: what are the multiethnic issues present and related to custodial grand parenting? Research design The most suitable research design in this research is the use of cross-sectional research design. This is effective to answer the research question related to multiethnic issues since the research design will cover three major ethnic groups: Caucasians, African-Americans and Hispanics. With cross-sectional design, the impacts and issues facing these three groups will be easily brought out hence answering the research questions. Sampling Sampling will be carried out in a large metropolitan town where there are mixtures of the three mentioned groups under study in almost equal racial. The identification of such a town will be carried out in a non-random way (statistics of the racial percentage will be considered). When it comes to choosing the participants in that town, snow-ball sampling technique will be employed since most of these grandparents know each other from support groups or similar locality. This technique will therefore ensure that each ethnic group member who will initially be chosen randomly will lead the researchers to others of his or her own ethnic group. Data collection instruments and procedure There are several instruments that will be used in collecting the data to answer the research questions above. One of them is conducting open-ended interviews with those grandparents. This is effective to capture both the verbal and non-verbal communication and also because probing can be used to gather more information concerning the research topic. It is also useful among the research population that is not educated and hence cannot write. Those participants who have been pointed out through snow-ball method are the ideal ones to be interviewed unless they are busy and prefer to be given questionnaires instead. The other will be questionnaires which can be distributed among the literate sample group. This will collect more information within a short time, gather information from the busy grandparents who have no time for interviews and also collect more personal information as privacy and anonymity is guaranteed where a questionnaire is involved. The questionnaire can be distributed form the support group and organizations offices where they are likely to reach many of the target group and they can be returned to the same location within the duration of one week. Data Analysis Data analysis will be done electronically by use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). This is an effective data analysis tool for this research since it deals with analysis of social information like the one to be collected in the research. The interview data analysis may however first be done manually since there is a lot of data to be sorted out as it is an open-ended interview and the data collected is mostly in narrative form and has to be coded first before electronic analysis can be used. Limitations As a result of the unequal population of the three groups, the results presented may be unequal and this presents a big limitation. The fact that the research design to be used is cross-sectional and the best in this situation means that the data collected will only reflect the associations but cannot clearly determine which factors are related to health and services used by grandparents. The other limitation is that even though the metropolitan town where data is collected from gives representation, it is limited because is biased on the urban centers and neglects the rural areas where most grandparents are likely to reside in since they are retired. Conclusion Based on the research methodology and the literature review mentioned above, the data to be gathered and the findings from this research will continue to shed more light into this rapidly spreading issue of grandparents having custody of their grandchildren and also the newer issues and impacts that may be discovered based on answering the research questions may have solutions in future. When it comes to the multiethnic issues and difference that will be found through the research, stereotypes will reduce and more understanding and solutions sought to avoid such discrepancies in ethnic data concerning the research topic. References Goodman, C. C. and Silverstein, M. (2006). “Grandmothers raising grandchildren: Ethnic and racial differences in well-being among custodial and co-parenting families.” Journal of Family Issues, 27(11), 1605-1626. Peluso, P. R., Watts, R. E. and Parson, M. (2012). Changing Aging, Changing Family Therapy: Practicing With 21st Century Realities. New Jersey: Routledge. Phua, V. C. and Kaufman, G. (2008). “Grand parenting responsibility among elderly Asian Americans: The effects of householder status, ethnicity, and immigration.” Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 6(1), 41-59. Scommegna, P. (March, 2012). “More US children raised by grandparents.” Population Reference Bureau. Retrieved from: http://www.prb.org/Articles/2012/US-children- grandparents.aspx U.S. Census Bureau. (2006). Design and methodology: American Community Survey (Technical paper 67). Retrieved November 28, 2008, from http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/tp67.pdf Read More