• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.23 no.3 s.75
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• pp.103-114
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• 2005

The number of grandparents who have responsibility for raising their grandchildren is growing. The present study examines the extent of this phenomenon and some of the issues these grandparents face in surrogate parenting. The sample consists of 69 grandparents(63 grandmothers and 6 grandfathers) of grandchildren who have lived with them at least 6 months without their parents. The grandparents raising grandchildren reported that caregiving bought negative changes in relations with their own children, economic situation and health condition. They concerned most about the issue of good mannered behavior of grandchildren and making good friends and needed social supports in terms of house cleaning and cooking and transportation for after school activities. Caregiver burden was related to the number of family members, the degrees of life changes, economic hardship due to caregiving, grandchildren's school performance and the relations with granparents' own children.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.673-681
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to examine grandparents' role to their grandchildren, the role type, and the variables that influence the role. For this purpose, data were collected from 542 grandparents through questionnaire. The main findings are as follows: 1. The most frequent role activity that grandparents perform include 'advising their grandchildren to be successful,' 'encouraging them to study hard,' 'having them help housework,' and 'teaching them how to behave', whereas the least one is 'to teach things such as cooking, paduk, and chess.' 2. Supporting role, educating role and raising role are three types of grandparents' role activity to their grandchildren. 3. One of the significant variables affecting their role level is living arrangement of grandparents. In addition, age, economic level, and educational level are partially effective variables in grandparents' role, along with whether they work or not, how often they meet their grandchildren, and how old their grandchildren are. However, it is not among significant variables whether they are healthy, or whether they are paternal or maternal.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.905-923
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting the conflict between grandparents raising grandchildren and adult children. The data were based on the panel survey to explore korean retirement and income study conducted by National Pension Service in 2009. For this study, 287 parenting grandparents rearing grandchild are selected from the survey. Included variables are a demographic factor, a economic factor, a caregiving-related factor, a health factor, and a family relationship factor. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, co-relation and logistic regression, with SPSS WIN 18.0 program. The results are as follows: First, when grandparents are male, older, highly educated, having no religion, and unemployed, a conflict with their adult children grows. Second, when grandparents do not have earned income or financial income, but have private income transfers, a conflict with their adult children is high. Third, when grandchildren are younger, there are no caregiving rewards, economic activities suspension or reduction because of caregiving, a conflict with their adult children is strong. Also, when grandparents' physical health is good, but their mental health is poor, a conflict with their adult children increases. Fourth, when grandparents' satisfactions with family relationship and spouse relationship are low, but their satisfaction with adult children relationship is high, a conflict with their adult children rises. This study suggests that unlike in the past, grandparents raising grandchildren can no longer make sacrifice themselves for their adult children, but they expect proper exchange between parents and children. Therefore, there needs to be understanding of grandparents raising grandchildren and further studies of a conflict between grandparents raising grandchildren their adult children.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.262-270
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was conducted in order to examine the effects of death anxiety and meaning of life on somatization of grandparents raising grandchildren. Methods: A convenience sample of 92 elderly grandparents raising grandchildren was recruited. The study instrument for death anxiety was the 5-point 15 items scale designed by Templer and translated by Ko, Choi, & Lee and for meaning of life, the 7-point 10-items scale by Steger, Frazier, Oishi & Kaler and translated by Won, Kim & Kwon. For somatization, the 5-point 12 items scale designed by Derogatis and translated by Kim, Kim & Won was used. Collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson Correlation and regression using the SPSS 21.0 program. Results: Average scores were 3.55 for death anxiety, 3.43 for meaning of life, and 2.74 for somatization. Death anxiety had the highest positive correlation with somatization. Meaning of life was negatively correlated with death anxiety and somatization. Death anxiety and health status were shown to influence somatization but meaning of life was not shown to influence somatization. Conclusion: The research results indicate that death anxiety and health status influence somatization in grandparents raising grandchildren. These results also provide basic information on the importance of nursing interventions in which the variables influencing somatization in grandparents raising grandchildren are considered.

• 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.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting quality of life among grandparents raising their grandchildren. Methods: This study carried out a secondary analysis of data from the 2014 Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA) and Statistics Korea. Data collected from 224 grandparents who reported raising their grandchildren were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, ANOVA, pearson correlation coefficient, and multilevel regression analysis. Results: The mean score of the participants' quality of life was 62.63. Significant predictors of quality of life of the grandparents included subjective health status, last year's total house income, number of last year's travels, frequency of last year's movie seeing, and number of children's parks per 100,000 population. Conclusion: These results suggest that public health nurses in improving quality of life of grandparents focus on children's parks and formal social supports as community factors as well as regular exercise as an individual factor in order to be more effective.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.24 no.4 s.82
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• pp.25-36
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to investigate the parenting stress, efficacy, and behaviors of Korean and Yanbian Korean-Chinese grandfamilies in which grandparents have sole responsibility for raising their grandchildren. Our sample consists of 74 grandparents and their grandchildren (43 Korean and 31 Yanbian Korean-Chinese). The data were analyzed through crosstabs analysis, 1-test, Pearson's correlation, and stepwise regression analysis. The results of this study indicate that there are some differences based on the gender of grandparents, educational level, the reason for taking care of the grandchildren, and the grandparents' relationship with grandchildren between two ethnic groups. The results also show that parenting stress is higher for Korean grandparents' and parenting efficacy is lower than Yanbian Korean-Chinese. Also, Yanbian Korean-Chinese grandparents are higher in warmth and acceptance and lower in rejected and controlled parenting behaviors than Korean grandparents. There are strong relationships between parenting stress and parenting efficacy and between parenting behaviors and parenting stress and parenting efficacy for Korean grandparents, but not for Yanbian Korean-Chinese.

• 한국노년학
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.299-313
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• 2014

Recently, an interest on parenting stress and depression of grandparents raising grandchildren is rising according to the increase of working couple and divorce. Discussing around developmental task of elderly, one of the influencing factors on increase of grandparents' parenting stress and depression is leisure restriction. However, this factor has received far less rigorous analysis. Thus, the purpose of this article is to offer an analysis of the effect of leisure activities on depression in grandparents raising grandchildren. The data was collected from 172 grandparents raising their grandchildren in 2011 national survey results on the elderly life conditions. Their analyses were composed of descriptive statistic and multiple regression analysis. The study generated several findings. First, grandparents participated in activities for exercise and religion at a high rate and their mean score of depression was 7.1 of 15 what suggests middle level of depression. second, multiple regression analysis showed that the factor of exercise, travel experience, leisure activities satisfaction and other special leisure activities were statistically significant predictors of depression. Implication for social welfare services and programs to improve the mental health of grandparents raising their grandchildren to have positive self-awareness and attitude about life in their position and living condition for help prevent depression were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.109-134
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• 2009

Due to the change of socio-cultural conditions, family dissolving is increasing. As an alternative, grandparents who parent their grandchildren are also increasing rapidly and many show deep concern at this phenomenon. The grandparents-grandchildren families were approached through policy-makers' and professionals' perspective, not through insiders' view. The purpose of this ethnographic study were to explore the experiences and meaning-makings of grandmothers who are raising grandchildren. 22 narrative interviews with 10 grandmothers were conducted. The results of data analysis are as follows. The cultural theme in rasing experiences of grandmothers is 'Constituting a family beyond the multiple boundaries'. This theme include four cultural meanings: 'Recunstuction of everyday life beyound boundaries', 'Boundary of relative poverty more rigid than boundary of absolute poverty', 'Compromising constantly with normal culture having both inclusion and exclusion' boundaries', 'Having aspiration toward crossing the boundaries'. The policiy-makers and practitioners for the grandparents-grandchildren families should recognize the experiences and meaning-making of these families and should perform culturally perceptible and family-centered policies and practices.

• 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.