García-Sanjuán Sofia, Gutiérrez-García Ana Isabel, Cabañero-Martínez María José, Fernández-Alcántara Manuel, Rocamora-Rodriguez Maria Del Carmen, Escribano Silvia
Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
Institute of Health and Biomedical Research of Alicante (ISABIAL), Group of Person-Centred Care and Innovation in Health Outcomes, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
Front Public Health. 2024 Nov 27;12:1419207. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1419207. eCollection 2024.
The evolution of the family model in Europe in the 21st century, and particularly in Spain, has led to grandparents playing a major role in caring for their grandchildren. Grandparents are required to take on certain functions and roles in order to provide this care. This results in changes to their daily lives, their family relationships and therefore their quality of life.
To explore grandparents' lived experience of being involved in the upbringing and care of grandchildren and to determine how this affects their quality of life.
A descriptive qualitative design was used. The data collection strategy involved two focus groups in two health centres in the province of Alicante (Spain), which were attended by 19 grandparents. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.
Four themes and their respective sub-themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) Not only caring, but also raising (implications for upbringing; dealing with their children's rules; nutrition of grandchildren); (2) Motivation for providing care (it is what families do; financial support; barriers to caregiving that outweigh the reasons for caregiving); (3) Significance of gender (grandmothers bring up, grandfathers help out; cultural burden of caregiving for women) and (4) Implications of care (negative aspects of caregiving; positive aspects of caregiving).
The study findings show that while grandparents recognise the value and benefits of providing regular childcare, there are important challenges that need to be addressed. It would therefore be advisable for health professionals to take into account the experience of grandparent caregivers and the process of caring for young children when developing inclusive policies for this population of caregivers.
21世纪欧洲家庭模式的演变，尤其是在西班牙，使得祖父母在照顾孙辈方面发挥着重要作用。祖父母需要承担一定的功能和角色来提供这种照顾。这导致他们的日常生活、家庭关系以及生活质量发生变化。
探讨祖父母参与孙辈养育和照顾的生活经历，并确定这如何影响他们的生活质量。
采用描述性定性设计。数据收集策略包括在西班牙阿利坎特省的两个健康中心组织两个焦点小组，19位祖父母参加。采用主题分析法对数据进行分析。
数据分析得出四个主题及其各自的子主题：（1）不仅是照顾，还有养育（对养育的影响；处理子女的规则；孙辈的营养）；（2）提供照顾的动机（这是家庭应做之事；经济支持；照顾的障碍超过照顾的理由）；（3）性别的意义（祖母养育，祖父帮忙；女性照顾的文化负担）以及（4）照顾的影响（照顾的消极方面；照顾的积极方面）。
研究结果表明，虽然祖父母认识到定期照顾孩子的价值和益处，但仍有一些重要挑战需要解决。因此，健康专业人员在为这类照顾者制定包容性政策时，考虑祖父母照顾者的经历和照顾幼儿的过程是明智的。
