title: Negotiating a Place in the Family-A Grounded Theory Exploration of Stepgrandmothers' Enactment of Roles.
abstract: Stepgrandparents are becoming more common, and they can, and often do, provide affective and instrumental support to families. Little is known, however, about how they negotiate and enact their roles within families, especially with stepgrandchildren. Stepgrandmothers warrant special attention because researchers have found that women experience more challenges than men in stepfamilies. Guided by symbolic interactionism, the purposes of our study were: (a) to explore stepgrandmothers' role enactment and (b) to explore the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual factors that contribute to role enactment in intergenerational steprelationships.
  
  
  
  Eighteen stepgrandmothers participated in semi-structured interviews, discussing their relationships with 94 stepgrandchildren. Consistent with grounded theory methods, data collection and analysis occurred simultaneously.
  
  
  
  Interviews with stepgrandmothers revealed that they spend considerable time and energy defining their roles with stepgrandchildren. Stepgrandmothers' role enactment is a complex, reflexive process. A few perceived that their roles were shaped by their own dispositions, desires, and expectations (evidence for role-making), but most stepgrandmothers described their roles as reflecting the dispositions, desires, and expectations of others (evidence for role-taking). Stepgrandmothers reflected on their roles as a delicate balance of intra- and inter-personal negotiations, operating within cultural expectations.
  
  
  
  Findings draw attention to the complex nature of role-taking, role-making, and gendered, relational processes in multigenerational stepfamilies. We discuss implications for research and theory related to stepgrandmotherhood as an incomplete institution.
authors: Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors: Ashton
authors: A
authors: Chapman
authors: Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors: Lawrence
authors: L
authors: Ganong
authors: Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors: Marilyn
authors: M
authors: Coleman
authors: Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors: Youngjin
authors: Y
authors: Kang
authors: Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors: Caroline
authors: C
authors: Sanner
authors: Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors: Luke T
authors: LT
authors: Russell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004243:Divorce; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D000066502:Grandparents / Q000523:psychology*; D066296:Grounded Theory; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D008875:Middle Aged; D017008:Negotiating / Q000523:psychology*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012380:Role; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support
keywords: Family issues; Gender issues; Grounded theory; Intergenerational relationships; Marriage and divorce; Social roles and social factors; Women’s issues