title: Personal growth, grandmother engagement and satisfaction among non-custodial grandmothers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated grandmothers' personal growth, their engagement with grandchildren, their satisfaction with this role and how personal growth was related to engagement and satisfaction.
  
  
  METHODS
  One thousand two hundred and five grandmothers completed a survey containing questions about: personal resources (age, education, whether partnered or not, health); engagement with grandchildren (number of grandchildren, hours spent per week, frequency of activities, satisfaction with being a grandmother); and personal growth (life satisfaction, generativity).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants had a positive sense of living productive and worthwhile lives with most reporting high scores on life satisfaction and generativity. Most were actively engaged with their grandchildren, participating in a wide range of activities. Active engagement was positively related to grandmother satisfaction. Hierarchical regressions showed that both life satisfaction and generativity were significantly predicted by grandmother resources and grandmother engagement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This group of grandmothers did not fit ageist stereotypes of disengagement and loss of function. Our study shows that grandmothering is a rewarding role, and women who engage with it have a positive sense of personal growth.
authors.affiliation: a Psychological Sciences and Statistics , Swinburne University of Technology , Hawthorn , Australia.
authors.forename: Susan May
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Doreen Anne
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia / Q000208:ethnology; D005190:Family / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations / Q000208:ethnology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction
keywords: generativity; grandmother satisfaction; grandmothers; personal growth