Department of Social Work, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.
Department of Research, Saybrook University, Poway, California.
Gerontologist. 2020 Aug 14;60(6):1094-1102. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnz189.
Grandparents who are raising their grandchildren in the absence of the biological parents, often referred to as custodial grandparents, are prevalent across the United States. The objective of this project was to establish a grounded theory as a tool for practitioners and researchers to understand the experiences of members of grandfamiles.
In-depth, unstructured interviews with custodial grandparents and grandchildren from 15 grandfamilies were conducted. Classic grounded theory was the methodology used to ask the question, "What are the challenges within grandfamilies and how do they respond to these challenges?"
The theory emerging from the data, Compounding Complexity, provides an explanatory framework of three interrelated categories of factors that affect complexity in grandfamilies: situational, relationship, and emotional complexity. Conflict and change were found to be consistent across the categories of Compounding Complexity.
Next steps include adding data from interviews with biological parents to Compounding Complexity and applying the theory. Understanding relationship, situational, and emotional complexity in the context of conflict and change enables practitioners to advance their work with grandfamiies.
在美国，祖辈在没有亲生父母的情况下抚养孙辈的情况很常见，通常被称为“监护祖辈”。本项目的目的是建立一个扎根理论，作为从业者和研究人员理解大家庭成员体验的工具。
对来自 15 个大家庭的监护祖辈和孙辈进行了深入的、非结构化的访谈。经典扎根理论是用于提出问题的方法，即“大家庭中存在哪些挑战，他们如何应对这些挑战？”
从数据中得出的理论“使复杂性复杂化”提供了一个解释框架，其中包括影响大家庭复杂性的三个相互关联的因素类别：情境、关系和情感复杂性。在“使复杂性复杂化”的类别中发现冲突和变化是一致的。
下一步包括将来自与亲生父母访谈的数据添加到“使复杂性复杂化”中，并应用该理论。在冲突和变化的背景下理解关系、情境和情感复杂性，使从业者能够推进他们与大家庭的工作。
