Sources of Support and Family Quality of Life of Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren With and Without Disabilities

SOURCES OF SUPPORT AND FAMILY QUALITY OF LIFE OF GRANDMOTHERS RAISING GRANDCHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES by Karen Kresak Researchers have examined sources of support as well as family quality of life of parents raising children with disabilities (Brown, MacAdam-Crisp, Wang, & Iarocci, 2006; Darling & Gallagher, 2004; Davis & Gavidia-Payne, 2009; Zuna, Turnbull, & Summers, 2009). Scant research on grandparents raising grandchildren with disabilities has been conducted; an examination of sources of support and family quality of life of grandparents raising grandchildren is lacking in the literature. This study examined the sources of support and quality of life of 50 grandmother-headed families, approximately half of whom were raising grandchildren with disabilities and approximately half of whom were raising grandchildren without disabilities. Comparative analyses revealed that there were significant differences between grandmothers raising grandchildren with and without disabilities in regard to sources of support and family quality of life. Informal support was significantly higher for grandmothers raising grandchildren without disabilities. In addition, grandmothers raising grandchildren without disabilities rated satisfaction with all aspects of family quality of life except parenting as significantly higher than grandmothers raising grandchildren with disabilities. Correlational analyses showed a moderate correlation between sources of support and family quality of life for both groups of grandmothers. While total informal social support was significantly correlated with satisfaction ratings of family quality of life for both groups of grandmothers, total formal support was significantly correlated with satisfaction ratings of family quality of life only for grandmothers raising grandchildren with disabilities. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to test the relationship among four predictor variables (age of grandmother, educational level of grandmother, age of grandchild, and presence of child disability) and two criterion variables (total score on sources of support rating and total score on family quality of life rating). Results showed that there was a significant relationship between presence of child disability and satisfaction ratings of family quality of life. No significant relationship was found between presence of child disability and sources of support. SOURCES OF SUPPORT AND FAMILY QUALITY OF LIFE OF GRANDMOTHERS RAISING GRANDCHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES by Karen Elizabeth Kresak