Grandparent-parent coparenting has become a common phenomenon in the current society. The investigation shows that the proportion of grandparents caring for grandchildren in China has exceeded 70%. Grandparent-parent coparenting needs to be completed through consultation and cooperation between different caregivers, and this coparenting relationship may have an impact on grandparents. However, few studies focused on the mechanism of the impact of coparenting on grandparents' mental health. The research found that the quality of the grandparents' coparenting relationship is an important factor affecting the grandparents' mental health, and also has an impact on grandparents' role cognition. This study combines qualitative and quantitative research methods to deeply explore the interaction process of grandparents' coparenting and the mechanism of the impact of relationship quality on mental health, to provide a reference for formulating programs to promote grandparents' mental health.
This study is divided into two parts: qualitative and quantitative. The first part is qualitative research. Ten grandparents who participated in coparenting were selected for interview, combined with grounded theory and narrative research, the process of grandparents' participation in the coparenting and the factors that may affect their mental health were demonstrated. The second part is quantitative research. According to the results of qualitative research, quantitative research was conducted to verify the impact of the relationship between grandparents' and parents' co-parenting on grandparents' mental health in the context of coparenting, as well as the mediating and regulating effects between elders' sense of value and mental resilience. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 626 grandparents who participated in coparenting. Investigated with the Grandparent-Parent Coparenting Scale, Grandparent Meaning Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale(CD-RISC), Life Satisfaction Scale and Center for Epidemiological Studies- Depression(CES-D). The independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to test the difference of the results. Based on the moderated mediation model, the process of SPSS24.0 and the percentile Bootstrap of deviation correction were conducted to explore the mediating effects of elders' self-perceived sense of valued and mediating effects of mental resilience.
The results of this study are as follows: Qualitative research shows that there are two reasons for the grandparents' participation in coparenting: external reality such as parents' work and internal attitude such as following traditional social customs. Most grandparents and parents can maintain consistency and cooperation in the process of coparenting, but conflict also exits; Grandparents tend to maintain a harmonious family relationship in the process of getting along with parents, but there are individual differences in coping strategies to avoid conflicts; Coparenting has both positive effects on grandparents, such as feeling happy and enhancing their sense of value, and negative effects such as not being able to spend time freely, feeling tired and generating anxiety. Quantitative studies show that there were significant difference in the scores of grandparents' life satisfaction of different gender, the males scored higher than the females; The grandparents with lower education level had lower life satisfaction and higher depression scores. Correlation analyses showed that grandparent-parent positive coparenting relationship positively correlated with grandparents' life satisfaction, negatively correlated with depression; The mediating effect test showed that elders' self-perceived sense of value partially mediated the association between the positive coparenting relationship and grandparents' life satisfaction and depression; Grandparents' mental resilience moderated the association between grandparent-parent positive coparenting and life satisfaction and depression, and it also had a significant moderating effect on the first half of the mediation mode. Specifically, with the increase of grandparents' mental resilience, the effect of positive coparenting relationship on grandparents' mental health and elders' self-perceived sense of value decreased.
Conclusion: The reasons for grandparents' participation in coparenting could be divided into external factors such as the reality of parents' work and internal factors such as the attitude of following traditional social customs. There were individual differences in grandparents' experience and strategies for coping with conflicts in the process of coparenting. The positive relationship between grandparents and parents in coparenting could improve grandparents' life satisfaction and reduce their depression, the elders' self-perceived sense of value has a mediating effect between the positive coparenting and the mental health of grandparents. The mental resilience of grandparents could moderate the impact of the coparenting relationship on the mental health of grandparents and the sense of value of elders respectively. Grandparents with lower mental resilience were more affected by the coparenting relationship. To promote the grandparents' mental health who participate in the care for grandchildren, the intervention should focus on improve grandparent-parent coparenting relationship and enhancing grandparents' self-perceived sense of value as well as their mental resilience.
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