Workshop on Strengths and Competences to Improve Psychological Wellbeing and Quality of Life of Grandparents

Summary

Recent social and demographic changes in Western countries have led to a reorganization of the family relationships, such as grandparents-grandchildren bond. The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) shows, on the one hand, that 52% of grandparents are auxiliary caregivers of their grandchildren and, on the other hand, that more than 15% of grandparents regularly care for their grandchildren, being the Spanish percentage the second highest of Europe. Given these figures, it is clear that many grandparents today are playing an important role as socializing agents for their grandchildren.

According to this, grandparents play their socializing rol by passing on their grandchildren skills, experiences, values, beliefs and affection. This bond not only influences positively on grandchildren, but also on grandparents. Caring for grandchildren allows grandparents to resolve the crises of generativity and integrity of self, included in Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development. Moreover, high leves of generativity are related with greater personal growth, one of the dimensions of psychological wellbeing. However, the literature on the socializing rol of grandparents is scarce and has focus on the negative effects of caring for grandchildren. In contrast, recent studies demonstrates that caring for grandchildren has positive effect on grandparents' health and life satisfaction.

Being important to consider the negative consequences of this type of care, is also necessary to develop a new perspective, focus on protective factors of grandparents' psychological wellbeing and quality of life. According to McCubbin's Resilience Model of Family Stress, Adjustment and Adaptation, psychological resources and coping skills could be protective factors, minimizing the impact of caring for grandchildren.

The present project considers two protective factors: personal strengths and emotional competences, variables that are worked on the workshops. By focusing on these aspects, not only an improvement in family relationships (grandparents-parents-grandchildren) is expected, but also an increase in the psychological well-being and quality of life of the participants.

The development of intervention programs aimed at protective factors could be useful for grandparent caregivers, promoting their psychological well-being and quality of life.

Conditions

• Psychological Well-being
• Quality of Life
• Virtues
• Skill, Coping

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Psychoeducational Workshop on Personal Strengths and Emotional Competences to Improve the Psychological Wellbeing and Quality of Life of Grandparents Caring for Their Grandchildren

The intervention is a psychoeducational group workshop (6-8 participants). It includes 5 sessions of, approximately, 90 minutes. In addition, 3 months after the end of the workshop, a follow-up call will be organized with the participants. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the workshop will be held online. The sessions are: * Session 1: Defining my role as grandparent. * Session 2: Deepening my relationships. * Session 3: Growing as grandparent. * Session 4: Discovering my emotional world. * Session 5: Caring for others and caring for myself.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• CEU San Pablo University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Cristina Noriega García · CEU San Pablo University

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-05-01

Primary Completion

2023-12-31

Completion

2024-06-30

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations