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Despite continued growth in the number of kinship care families, little is known about the experiences of the children. This retrospective study, which was informed by the perspective of intergenerational ambivalence, examined how adults who were raised by grandparents or great-grandparents experienced their relationships with their caregivers. It also explored how these intergenerational relationships evolved over time and were influenced by the caregiving context. Participants included 20 adults whose grandparents or great-grandparents had been their primary caregivers for at least 5 years. Participation involved completing a semistructured, qualitative interview. Findings revealed both strengths and challenges in participants' relationships with their kinship caregivers. In terms of strengths, participants experienced intense emotional bonds to their caregivers that they equated to a parent-child relationship. They were grateful for these relationships and respected their kinship caregivers' efforts in raising them. Participants also reported how instrumental and emotional support from their caregivers provided them with a sense of stability and unconditional love. At the same time, participants described sources of relational conflict or distance. One issue was loyalty conflicts between participants, their parents, and their kinships caregivers. Navigating differing rules and expectations related to the generation gap between participants and their kinship caregivers was another source of stress, especially for participants raised by great-grandparents. Although family conflicts and tension were often resolved by the conclusion of adolescence, remnants of disrupted relationships sometimes persisted as participants entered adulthood. The findings from this study highlight the significant and supportive role that kinship caregivers play throughout children's lives. Findings also suggest that managing intergenerational ambivalence may be a central task for children raised by grandparents and great-grandparents. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising child welfare costs and a desire to keep kids out of the system have encouraged the use of kinship care-of which custodial grandparents make up the majority of caregivers. Unfortunately, custodial grandparents report greater needs for social and emotional support to successfully care for their grandchildren. Yet, the resources required to provide preventive social-emotional support to these families are unknown. In the wake of the Family First Act and other policy actions to expand preventive services, we undertake a cost analysis of the social intelligence training (SIT) within a randomized controlled trial spanning 48 states of the United States of America. Estimated implementation costs were $90,638 (CI $45,254-186,998) which equated to $255 (CI $127-526) per participant. This dual-generation online approach offers key lessons into not only how to resource social-emotional learning (SEL) prevention for custodial grandparents-but also sheds light on how we might provide universal supports to this population. Child welfare system costs have risen to over $33 billion dollars a year-with nearly half of all spending being the result of out-of-home placement (Rosinsky et al., 2021) Child Welfare Financing SFY 2018: A survey of federal, state, and local expenditures. https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/ChildWelfareFinancing_ChildTrends_March2021.pdf ). Practitioners, policymakers, and child advocates are seeking solutions for how to both better protect children and manage these growing public costs (Ringel et al., 2018). Improving child welfare outcomes: Balancing investments in prevention and treatment. Rand health quarterly, 7(4)). Further, many extended families seek ways to keep children out of the "system" when parents are unable to care for their offspring (Lin, Children and Youth Services Review 93:203-216, 2018). A strategy used by all of these groups is the use of kinship care arrangements where extended family provides formal or informal care of children. Several important benefits are recognized from kinship care, including providing connections to family members, communities, and culture. Yet, little is known about how social-emotional supports could enhance kinship arrangements, and to date, no studies have systematically evaluated the costs of such supports. In this context, we conduct a cost analysis of such a program-known as social intelligence training., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethical Approval: Not applicable. Informed Consent: Informed consent is not required for the cost analysis. The larger trial included IRB approval from Kent State University (prime) and reciprocal IRBs with all project sites. Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. Society for Prevention Research.)

Objectives: Custodial grandparents are grandparents who raise grandchildren on a full-time basis in absence of the grandchild's birth parents. Compared to noncaregiving grandparents, custodial grandparents report poorer mental and physical health and stronger changes in daily well-being when experiencing negative and positive events. We examine whether an online social intelligence training (SIT) program improves custodial grandmothers' (CGM) daily well-being, socioemotional skills, and changes in well-being when confronted with daily negative and positive events., Methods: Multilevel models were applied to 200 CGM who were recruited from across the United States and completed a daily survey for 14 consecutive days prior to and following participation in a randomized clinical trial. Participants were randomized into the SIT program or an attention control condition focusing on healthy living habits. The outcomes of interest were daily well-being, social connectedness, emotional awareness, and perspective-taking., Results: Multilevel analyses revealed that participants who participated in the SIT program, compared to the attention control condition, exhibited stronger emotional responsiveness (i.e., improvements) to daily positive events in the outcomes of positive affect, social engagement, and perspective-taking., Discussion: Our findings illustrate that SIT improves key components of daily functioning in CGM, which may serve as a pathway linking the demands of custodial grandparenting to poorer mental and physical health. Our discussion focuses on the utility and accessibility of the SIT program for helping improve outcomes for this disadvantaged population.Clinical Trials Registration Number: NCT03239977., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The present study aimed to identify intergenerational patterns of attachment insecurity among grandmothers, adolescent grandchildren, and birth mothers in custodial grandfamilies and to test the relations among triadic attachment patterns and grandchild socioemotional outcomes. Prior research with custodial grandfamilies has found distinct "profiles" reflecting patterns of closeness between grandmothers, grandchildren, and birth mothers. However, no studies have tested patterns of attachment insecurity among members of the triad, despite the likelihood of attachment disruption in grandfamilies. Moreover, previous studies have only examined links between profile and grandmother outcomes or rudimentary grandchild outcomes. In a sample of 230 grandmother-grandchild dyads from a larger randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of an online social intelligence training program for grandfamilies, latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted to identify profiles of intergenerational attachment insecurity, using grandmother and grandchild reports. Profile differences in grandchild internalizing and externalizing problems, social skills, self-esteem, and prosocial behavior were examined. We identified three profiles: isolated mother, grandchild-linked, and disconnected. Overall, grandchildren in disconnected families (in which attachment insecurity between all three members of the triad was high) fared worst. Grandchildren in isolated mother families (in which only grandmother-grandchild attachment insecurity was low) fared best. A secure attachment relationship between grandmother and adolescent grandchild may buffer effects of attachment insecurity between the grandchild and birth mother. These findings inform intervention efforts and highlight the utility of family- and attachment-focused research for building understanding of custodial grandfamilies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Guided by a life-course perspective, we examine the nature of daily life among custodial grandmothers (CGM) through documenting daily positive and negative affect, reporting daily negative and positive events, and emotional reactivity/responsiveness to daily negative and positive events. We also examine whether CGM age, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and social relationship quality with grandchild are associated with each indicator., Methods: We applied multilevel models to 200 CGM (Mage = 61, SD = 5.66) who were recruited from across the United States and completed a daily survey for 14 consecutive days prior to commencing a randomized clinical trial., Results: Older age and reporting fewer ACEs were associated with better overall and less variability in daily well-being. Positive events were reported on 83% of days and negative events were reported on 56% of days. Daily well-being was lower when a negative event was reported and higher when a positive event was reported. Reporting more ACEs was associated with greater exposure to daily negative events and stronger gains in daily well-being when a daily positive event was reported. Older age was associated with lesser declines in daily well-being on days when a negative event was reported., Discussion: In accordance with the life-course perspective, our findings illustrate how the timing of being a CGM (age) and the cumulative nature of development (ACEs) affect daily well-being and negative and positive events for CGM. Our discussion focuses on resources to consider when building resilience-focused interventions for promoting the health and well-being of CGM., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

While negative impacts of COVID-19-related remote instruction on children continue to emerge, it appears that vulnerable students will disproportionately bear the burden. One such vulnerable population is children being raised by grandparents. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to gain insight into custodial grandmothers' (CGMs) experiences of their grandchildren's remote instruction, as well as individual and contextual factors associated with these experiences. A national sample of 315 CGMs, drawn from two randomized clinical trials, completed an online survey in Spring of 2020. Results of a thematic analysis and supplemental quantitative analyses revealed three themes. First, access to technology and instructional supports were critical to the success of remote instruction, with barriers being difficulties using technology and poor-quality remote instruction. Next, grandchild socioemotional difficulties, and fit with remote instruction, were central to their engagement and success with remote instruction. Finally, CGMs experienced multiple stressors related to managing the demands of remote instruction, work, and family. Challenges associated with remote instruction were related to pre-pandemic difficulties such as grandchild problems and CGM depressive symptoms. Collectively, the results highlight how multiple adversities may have amplified grandchildren's existing vulnerability to negative outcomes. Implications are addressed, including strategies for supporting children raised by grandparents beyond the COVID-19 pandemic., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (© 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Social services, including the child welfare system, are often heavily involved in situations where children are returned to the care of their parents, after being raised in kinship care by their grandparents. While previous research has highlighted custodial grandparents' service needs and the challenges they experience when accessing services and working with social service professionals, few studies have examined social services in the context of reunifying grandfamilies. Informed by bioecological theory, the aim of this qualitative study was to examine custodial grandmothers' perceptions of the role of social services in the process of their grandchildren being reunified with a biological parent. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 16 custodial grandmothers whose grandchildren had experienced reunification. Findings from a grounded theory analysis revealed grandmothers' perceptions that having a strong connection with a responsive caseworker facilitated successful reunification, as did ongoing efforts to address the parental issues that had resulted in the grandmother assuming a custodial role. Unfortunately, grandmothers also perceived barriers to successful reunification. These included having their perspectives dismissed by caseworkers and judges as well as the child welfare system prioritizing reunification, often to the perceived detriment of their grandchildren. Implications for policy and practice with reunifying grandfamilies are addressed., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

While the significance of social capital to the well-being of black South African grandmothers raising grandchildren has been well documented, few studies have systemically investigated the sources, types, and patterns of use of social capital in this population. The aim of the current qualitative study is to use the social capital framework to explore how 75 grandmothers accessed and utilized available social capital (i.e., bridging, bonding, and linking) to enhance their own and their families' well-being. Results from a thematic analysis revealed an inside-out pattern of social capital; bonding and bridging social capital were the most significant sources of immediate support for grandmothers, with relatives providing emotional and instrumental support and neighbors and friends mainly providing informational support. Linking capital (i.e., government and community leaders) helped grandmothers access public resources. Implications for policy and practice are addressed.

As a result of the devastating impact of the opioid epidemic, increased numbers of children are being raised by their grandparents in what are known as grandfamilies. Despite these children and their families experiencing difficult environmental circumstances, numerous adverse life events, and challenging family dynamics, empirical examinations of the opioid epidemic, as it relates to grandfamilies, remain limited. The purpose of this review is to advance the understanding of how grandfamilies have been impacted by the opioid epidemic by using a systemic perspective to highlight themes and major conclusions within the existing conceptual and empirical literature. The review reveals five systemically informed themes including the assumption of caregiving responsibilities, grandparent stress and well-being, caring for vulnerable grandchildren, navigating relationships with parents, and contextual stressors of societal stigma and barriers to service. To extend this work, systemically informed recommendations for clinical intervention and future priorities for research and policy are discussed.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how university training programs transitioned to teletherapy. This study describes the transition of two university marriage and family therapy (i.e., master's and doctoral) training clinics to teletherapy and presents preliminary analyses of the types of clients and cases that converted to teletherapy. A series of chi-square analyses, a t-test, a logistic regression model, and a multiple linear regression model were employed. Four key findings emerged: (1) most cases converted to teletherapy; (2) Hispanic ethnicity was the only demographic characteristic to significantly predict conversion to teletherapy; (3) individual cases were significantly more likely to convert to teletherapy than relational cases; and (4) the number of prior in-person sessions attended significantly predicted conversion to teletherapy. Teletherapy conversion implications are discussed across four systemic levels: client, student trainee, supervision, and larger systems., (© 2021 American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.)

Objective: This study examined how custodial grandmothers navigated the process of their grandchildren being reunified with a biological parent., Background: Prior research has focused on factors associated with unsuccessful reunification instead of resilient family processes that may support successful reunification. How custodial grandfamilies navigate reunification has not been examined, despite their unique relational configuration and grandparents' frequent involvement in raising their grandchildren., Method: Guided by Walsh's model of family resilience, semistructured, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 17 grandmothers whose custodial grandchildren had been reunified with a biological parent. Data analysis was guided by grounded theory methodology., Results: Grandmothers believed in parents fulfilling their obligations, prioritizing grandchildren's needs, and coping via their faith. Grandmothers supported reunified parents and children by providing emotional support and instrumental assistance, while maintaining clear role boundaries. Accessing resources and engaging in open family communication were helpful to the reunification, although there were still challenges in navigating family relationships., Conclusion: Within custodial grandfamilies, not all reunifications were a positive outcome for the grandchildren. Grandmothers remained heavily involved in supporting and monitoring the reunifications, with the quality of the grandmother-parent relationship being paramount., Implications: Practitioners should address family dynamics when working with custodial grandfamilies before, during, and after a reunification.

Despite knowledge that the larger sociocultural context contributes to the development of eating disorders, few studies have examined protective factors for women with subthreshold eating disorders. Using feminist-informed constructivist grounded theory methodology, 15 women (ages 18-25 years) with subthreshold eating disorders were interviewed. Results suggest that participants spoke of their subthreshold eating disorders in an externalized way and used protective factors to guide decision making toward their preferred values. A grounded theory model was developed to illustrate this process. Protective factors included (a) people who provide emotional and tangible support, (b) support people who challenge the eating disorder, (c) personal sense of agency, and (d) community activism and involvement. Participants experiencing subthreshold eating disorders demonstrated a capacity to distinguish their own thoughts and values from those of the "eating disorder voice," and protective factors facilitated this process. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Background and Objectives: In this manuscript, we update the literature over the last decade in addressing several new content areas that have emerged in the grandfamilies literature, along with issues that are still important to understanding grandparents raising their grandchildren today., Research Design and Methods: The social science and gerontological literature since 2004 was accessed, reviewed, organized topically, and integrated, based upon an exhaustive PsychINFO literature search., Results: Our review indicates an ongoing and/or growing emphasis on (a) the strengths of grandparent raising grandchildren, (b) diversity among grandfamilies along a number of parameters, (c) the social-interpersonal, cultural, and policy-related contexts of grandfamilies, (d) process-focused research, (e) parenting, parenting skills, and family relationships, (f) grandparent psychological distress, (g) targets for and the efficacy of interventions with grandfamilies, and (h) methodological issues relevant to the study of grandfamilies., Implications: We discuss the implications of our findings in terms of more completely understanding grandfamilies along a number of parameters, as well as presenting specific recommendations for future research and practice., (© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Globally, it is common for grandparents to serve as surrogate parents to their grandchildren, often in response to family crises and other challenges such as poverty, disease epidemics, and migration. Despite the global nature of this intergenerational caregiving arrangement, there have been few contextually focused examinations of how grandparents' surrogate parenting roles are enacted across countries and cultures. This analytic review addresses this issue by exploring demographic and cultural contexts, needs and experiences, and formal and informal supports for grandparents raising grandchildren in four diverse countries: China, New Zealand, Romania, and South Africa. We conclude our analysis by discussing key contextual factors, and their associated interrelationships, from which future research may elucidate how cultural, historical, and sociopolitical factors uniquely shape grandparents' experiences. We also make recommendations for contextually informed policies and practice.

With training that emphasizes relationship systems, marriage and family therapists are uniquely attuned to interpersonal dynamics, interdependence, and the influence of relationships on individuals' perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes. While recent statistical advances have contributed to a proliferation of resources designed to introduce researchers to dyadic data analysis, guidelines related to the methodological aspects of dyadic research design have received less attention. Given the potential advantages of dyadic designs for examining couple and family relational and therapeutic processes, the purpose of this article is to introduce marriage and family therapy researchers to dyadic research methodology. Using examples from our own research, we discuss methodological considerations and lessons learned related to sampling, measurement, data collection, and ethics. Recommendations for future dyadic research are provided., (© 2012 American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.)