Factors Associated with African American Grandparents' Interest in Grandparent Education

Bibliographic Data

ID4048919
AuthorsJeffrey A Watson (corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume66
Issue1
Pages73
Publication date1997-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Negro Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2984 • E-ISSN: 2167-6437
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2967252
OpenAlexW2092522765
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited15

As educators begin to pioneer various types of grandparent education programs, little is known about what types of grandparents are interested in such training. To help answer this question, 427 grandparents from 15 churches in the Washington, D.C. area completed the Grandparent Strengths and Needs Inventory. A series of statistical comparisons across 23 variables revealed 10 significant differences between grandparents who expressed interest in taking a grandparenting class and those who did not. Greater interest in such courses was found among younger African American grandparents with fewer economic resources, who co-resided with their grandchild(ren), felt strongly about their role as a family teacher, and desired more information about their grandchildren. The implications of these findings are discussed and additional research recommended. INTRODUCTION Since 1900, African Americans have gained more than 30 years in life expectancy, European Americans more than 20 (Kain, 1993). Together, these trends have tripled the proportion of Americans who are 65 years of age or older in the United States (Sprey & Matthews, 1982). With this advantage of expanded longevity, the U.S. presently boasts over 60 million grandparents (Kornhaber, 1996), several million of whom serve as surrogate parents (Kornhaber, 1993; Minkler, Roe, & Driver, 1992; Strom & Strom, 1993b; Woodworth, 1995). Indeed, one of the most central family roles in the African American community is the grandmother, who commonly serves as a source of security and strength for the children of that community (Boyd-Franklin, 1989). The relationship between African American grandparents and their grandchildren often illustrates two of the strengths found in families of color: active networks of extended kin and flexible roles among the generations (Fine, Schwebel, & James-Myers, 1987; Kivett, 1985, 1991, 1993; Lyles & Carter, 1982). In the early history of grandparent research, many studies seemed to suggest that grandparenting was the same for everyone. Accordingly, the grandparent role was often discussed in a one-dimensional way, regardless of potential complexities resulting from the grandparent's gender, race/ ethnicity, class, age, or family involvement (Crawford, 1981). Commonly, after studying middle-class European American grandmothers of any age, some early researchers generalized about grandparents at large (Gladstone, 1988). As a result, several important questions were left unanswered. Among these questions are the following: Do these reports clarify or cloud the role of grandfathers? Are their results relevant for grandparents of color? Do the findings accurately represent lessaffluent grandparents? Do the conclusions drawn by the researchers reliably depict grandparents who enter the role at different ages or stages in life? As grandparent research continued, family scholars discovered that men and women seemed to view grandparenthood differently (Strom, Collinsworth, Strom, Griswold, & Strom, 1992; Strom, Ewing, & Strom, 1996; Strom & Strom, 1989). For instance, after interviewing 70 pairs of middle-class grandparents, Neugarten and Weinstein (1964) found that grandmothers were more likely to define the grandparenting role as significant and more likely to serve as surrogate parents than were grandfathers. Their reported gender differences were similar to those of other investigators, who described grandmothers as being more involved in child care (Bengtson, 1985; Cohler & Grunebaum, 1981; Cunningham-Burley, 1984) and as more satisfied in their grandparenting than grandfathers (Thomas, 1982, 1986a, 1986b). Findings such as these suggest the need to investigate whether a person's interest in attending a grandparent education seminar might be a function of grandparent gender. As the interest in grandparent research grew, other studies identified apparent role differences between grandparents of African heritage and those of European descent (Strom, Collinsworth, Strom, & Griswold, 1992, 1993; Strom, Collinsworth, Strom, Griswold, & Strom, 1992; Strom, Strom, Strom, Collinsworth, & Griswold, 1996)

African american · Developmental psychology · Grandparent · Sociology · Anthropology · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies · Psychology

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