Intergenerational Triads in Grandparent-headed Families

Objectives: Grandparents are becoming caregivers of their grandchildren more often as a result of their adult children's drug addiction, mental problems, and financial need. This study examined grandmothers' well-being in relation to bonding within intergenerational triads consisting of grandmother, parent, and grandchild.

Methods: Interviews were conducted with 987 grandmothers recruited through schools and media, including 512 custodial grandmothers raising their grandchildren and 475 coparenting grandmothers helping their adult sons or daughters to raise their grandchildren.

Results: Contrary to expectation, triangulation involving a weak parent-grandmother relationship was not related to significantly lower grandmother well-being. In contrast, the emotionally isolated parent, particularly common in custodial families, was related to lower grandmother well-being, whether or not the parent lived in the household. The configuration in which the parent provided a link for both other generations was frequent in coparenting families, but it was not significantly different in grandmother well-being compared to other linking triads.

Discussion: Intergenerational triad types appear to be broadly relevant emotional configurations that transcend living situations but appear with different frequencies in custodial and coparenting families. Results affirm the utility of examining multirelationship patterns and describe the restructuring of intergenerational relationships characteristic of parental absence.