[Grandparents: their experience of the relationship with the oldest grand-child and their psychological well-being].
The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the satisfaction with, perceived responsibilities in, and the meaning of the relationship with the oldest grandchild, on the one hand, and the level of psychological well-being measured with the six-dimensional scale of Ryff, on the other hand. Questionnaires came from 255 Flemish retired grandparents with a mean age of 64.6 years. The relationship with the oldest grandchild was generally experienced as positive. Nearly all the grandparents agreed with items about satisfaction drawn from the relationship with the grandchild, about feeling responsible for helping him or her and about experiencing oneself as a valued elder. In general, grandparents reported well-being on all six dimensions. The experience of the relationship with the grandchild was found to be a unique additional predictor of well-being, even when background variables as grandparent's age, subjective health, financial situation and marital status were first brought into the step-wise regression-analyses. These variables explained 5 to 8% of the variance in the dimensions of well-being and 7% of the variance in the total well-being. The experience of the relationship with the oldest grandchild explained an additional 6 to 7% of the variance.
Spruytte
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N
Wetenschappelijk medewerker LUCAS, Leuven.
Verschueren
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K
Marcoen
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A
D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002668:Child Rearing / Q000523:psychology*; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012649:Self Concept; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires