GRANDPARENT CAREGIVERS’ RESILIENCE: STRESS, SOCIAL SUPPORT, AND COPING PREDICT LIFE SATISFACTION

It is well documented that grandparents raising grandchildren experience high levels of stress, which combined with social isolation and inadequate social support may contribute to grandparent caregivers’ low life satisfaction. Social support and coping skills may moderate stress outcomes and thus promote resilience in grandparent caregivers. Thus, this study’s purpose was to test a model of resilience in which stress, coping, and social support are predictors of life satisfaction. Grandparents (N = 74) who were raising grandchildren for a minimum of one year completed measures of daily hassles, social support, coping skills, and life satisfaction. Age, marital status, and income were covariates. Descriptive analyses showed that grandparent caregivers are a vulnerable population: high in stress (e.g., feeling overloaded), low in social support, and relatively low in coping and life satisfaction. Structural equation modeling was used to test direct versus moderated effects on life satisfaction. Findings supported direct effects of social support and coping on life satisfaction, but not moderation, and stress no longer predicted life satisfaction with the protective factors in the model, R2 = .55. Additionally, age was a significant covariate, but not the other covariates. These findings provide evidence that social support and coping skills may mitigate the effects of stress on grandparent caregivers, which has implications for interventions to assist grandparents who assume this challenging role.