Participants & Procedures

1. Grandmothers’ Relationship Quality and Adolescent Grandchildren Outcomes: Are the Associations Explained by Parental Acceptance? Laura D. Pittman, Micah Ioffe, Emily E. Stewart, & Christine R. Keeports Northern Illinois University Introduction Results • With an aging population, the presence of grandparents in the lives of their grandchildren is becoming increasingly common (Bengston, 2001). • Adolescent and young adult grandchildren with stronger ties to their grandparents have been found to have fewer emotional problems and more pro-social behavior. (Attar-Schwartz et al., 2009; Ruiz and Silverstein, 2007). • However, some have suggested this association is explained by more positive grandparent-grandchild relationships existing when relationships with parents are more positive (e.g., King & Elder, 1995; Thompson & Walker, 1987). In other words, the more direct influence is through the parents’ relationships with their children. • This study examines whether the association between a more positive grandmother-grandchild relationship and psychological outcomes is explained by the level of perceived acceptance from mothers and fathers. Table 1. Descriptive Statistics Figure 1. Path analyses predicting Depressive Symptoms Figure 3. Path analyses predicting Scholastic Competence Figure 5. Path analyses predicting Close Friendships Note. Grandmother-grandchild relationship quality was negatively associated with late adolescent depressive symptoms both directly and indirectly through fathers’ acceptance. A bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval for the indirect association (ab = -0.49) was entirely below zero (-1.18 to -0.08). Note. Grandmother-grandchild relationship quality was positively associated with late adolescent s’ scholastic competence directly, but no indirect associations were supported as the bootstrap confidence intervals included zero (-0.05 to 0.03 and -.01 to 0.07 for mother and father acceptances, respectively). Note. Grandmother-grandchild relationship quality was positively associated with late adolescents close friendships both directly and indirectly through fathers’ acceptance. A bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval for the indirect association (ab = 0.04) was entirely above zero (0.01 to 0.10). Table 2. Correlations among Dependent Variables Methods • Participants & Procedures • 537 18- and 19-year-old college students were recruited from an introductory psychology course at a large Midwestern University. Only participants with a living maternal grandmother who identified biological, step- or adoptive parents as their mother or father figures were kept in the final sample (N = 359). • Participants were • 56% female and 44% male • 64% Caucasian, 15% African American, 9% Hispanic-American, 7% Asian-American, and 5% Other (e.g., biracial, Native American) • Using an online survey, participants provided consent and responded to multiple questionnaires asking about their own psychological adjustment, their mothers’ and fathers’ parenting, the quality of their current relationship with each living grandparent, and the amount of care and contact they have had with each grandparent across multiple developmental periods. • Measures • Participants’ demographic information was collected including their gender, age, parental marital status, and minority status. • Maternal grandmother relationship quality was reported using a revised version of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1989; α = .94). • The Hostile Detachment and Positive Involvement Subscales from the Children’s Report of Parental Behavior Inventory-Revised (Schaefer, 1965) were selected to assess maternal and paternal acceptance. These two subscales loaded highly on the Acceptance factor in previous analyses (Schwarz et al., 1986). The internal consistency of the composite scores were strong (α = .89 and .91 for mothers and fathers, respectively). • Adolescents reported on their Global Self-Worth, Scholastic Competence, Intellectual Ability, Social Acceptance, and Close Friendship Competence using subscales from the Self-Perception Profile for College Students (Neeman & Harter, 1986; α = .75 - .83). • Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977; α = .89). • Data Analysis • Mediation analyses were conducted using ordinary least squares path analysis regression analyses examining grandmother-grandchild (GM-GC) relationship quality (RQ) associations with adolescent outcomes, both directly and indirectly through mother and father acceptance based on methods outlined by Hayes, 2013. All analyses controlled for participants’ age, minority status, gender, and biological parents’ marital status. • Indirect effects were tested using a bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval based on 10,000 bootstrap samples calculated using the PROCESS macro in SPSS (Hayes, 2013). If the confidence interval does not include zero, the indirect effect is considered significant. Figure 4. Path analyses predicting Intellectual Ability Figure 6. Path analyses predicting Social Acceptance Figure 2. Path analyses predicting Self-Worth Note. All correlations are significant at p < .05. Also the correlation between mother and father acceptance was significant (r = .54). Table 3. Correlations between IVs and DVs Note. While the total association between grandmother-grandchild relationship quality and late adolescent s’ intellectual ability was significant (b = .16), neither the direct nor the indirect associations were significant. Note. Grandmother-grandchild relationship quality was positively associated with late adolescents’ social acceptance, but only indirectly through fathers’ acceptance. A bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval for the indirect association (ab = 0.05) was entirely above zero (0.01 to 0.11). Note. Grandmother-grandchild relationship quality was positively associated with late adolescents’ self-worth both directly and indirectly through fathers’ acceptance. A bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval for the indirect association (ab = 0.05) was entirely above zero (0.02 to 0.09). Discussion References Armsden, G. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16, 427-454. Attar-Schwartz, S., Tan, J.-P., Buchanan, A., Flouri, E., & Griggs, J. (2009). Grandparenting and adolescent adjustment in two-parent biological, lone-parent, and step-families. Journal of Family Psychology, 23, 67-75. Bengtson, V. L. (2001). Beyond the nuclear family: The increasing importance of multigenerational. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 63, 1-16. Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. A regression approach. New York: Guilford Press. King, V., & Elder, G. H., Jr. (1995). American children view their grandparents: Linked lives across three rural generations. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 57, 165-178. Neeman, J. & Harter, S. (1986). Manual for the Self-Perception Profile for College Students. Denver: Department of Psychology, University of Denver. Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385-401. Ruiz, S. A. and Silverstein, M. (2007), Relationships with grandparents and the emotional well-being of late adolescent and young adult grandchildren. Journal of Social Issues, 63, 793–808. Schaefer, E. S. (1965). Children's Reports of Parental Behavior: An inventory. Child Development, 36, 413-424. Schwarz, J. C., Barton-Henry, M. L., & Pruzinsky, T. (1985). Assessing child-rearing behaviors: A comparison of ratings made by mother, father, child, and sibling on the CRPBI. Special Issue: Family development. Child Development, 56( 462-479. Thompson, L. , & Walker, A. J. (1987). Mothers as mediators of intimacy between grandmothers and their young adult grandchildren. Family Relations, 36, 72-77. • Late adolescents’ relationships with their maternal grandmothers are associated with both reports of depressive symptoms and self competence. For most outcomes, this direct association remains significant, even when taking into account adolescents’ perceptions of acceptance by both of their parents, suggesting it is not just a global influence of the parents. • The relationship with the maternal grandmother seems to be more strongly associated with emotional outcomes (e.g., depressive symptoms and self-worth) as compared to other more specific areas of self competence (e.g., intellectual ability and social acceptance). It may be that the love and support from a grandparent may be especially important for late adolescents to feel a broad sense of worth. However, when thinking of themselves in terms of specific domains, interactions in school and with peers may be more important. • Surprisingly, the indirect association through maternal acceptance was never significant. When considered in models without father acceptance, mothers’ acceptance was a significant mediator (data not shown). Yet, when father acceptance was included in the model, it was the more important variable; in four our of six outcomes, the indirect association through father acceptance was significant. This speaks to the importance of the father in the functioning of late adolescents. • This pattern of findings is perhaps even more surprising given it is the mothers’ mother whose relationship is being reported. Future analyses and studies should consider whether these pathways work similarly for paternal grandmother-grandchild relationships. • Further consideration of how the parent-grandparent relationship may influence the associations between grandparent-grandchild relationship and adolescent outcomes may also be important, as suggested by many researchers (e.g., King & Elder, 1995). • These findings need to be repeated for a more representative sample. It may be that a college student population are better adjusted and for those who are struggling more the grandparent relationship may not be as strongly associated with outcomes. • Extension of these findings to a younger age group would be important to see whether the influence is similar at different developmental periods. Furthermore longitudinal analyses that can consider the sequence of the influences need to be considered. It may be that those late adolescents who have more positive outcomes view relationships more positively. • Child clinical psychologists and family therapists are encouraged to look beyond the nuclear family, as interactions with extended family may be influence child functioning, especially if the grandparents have frequent contact with the grandchild. • Comments or questions about this poster can be directed to Laura D. Pittman, Ph.D. at lpittman@niu.edu .