Grandmothers who raise working parents' children: Influences on grandchildren, behavior management styles, and educational needs

• Published date: 01 July 2023
• Author: Emine Durmuş,Aslı Tunca
• Date: 01 July 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12713

RESEARCH

Grandmothers who raise working parents’children:

Influences on grandchildren, behavior management

styles, and educational needs

Emine Durmus¸

1

| AslıTunca

2

1

Department of Guidance and Psychological

Counseling, _

Inönü University, Malatya,

Turkey

2

Department of Psychology, Malatya Turgut

Özal University, Malatya, Turkey

Correspondence

AslıTunca, Department of Psychology,

Faculty of Social and Humanities, Malatya

Turgut Özal University, _

Ikizce 44900 Malatya,

Turkey.

Email: asli.tunca@ozal.edu.tr

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study was to examine perspec-

tives on helping raise grandchildren among Turkish grand-

mothers who care for working parents’children.

Background: Grandparents helping raise their grandchildren

has become increasingly common as a means to support

women’s employment. In Turkey, the Büyükanne Projesi

(Grandma Project) was carried out in 2017 with the support

of the government. This project encouraged grandmothers

to help raise their grandchildren to encourage women’spar-

ticipation in the workforce. The importance of grand-

mothers in the family system and the role of raising

grandchildren has gradually increased.

Method: This research is qualitative and phenomenologi-

cal. Sixteen grandmothers living in Turkey participated in

the research. Participants were selected by criterion sam-

pling, a purposive sampling method.

Results: The study’s findings were categorized into three

main themes: the effects of being raised by grandmothers

on grandchildren, grandmothers’behavior management

styles, and grandmothers’educational needs.

Conclusion: While raising the children of working parents,

grandmothers strive to instill societal and familial values

to the children. In so doing, grandmothers appear to prefer

democratic and child-centered behavior-management

methods over authoritarian and oppressive ones. It was

noted that grandmothers have some educational needs,

especially with regard to child development issues.

Implications: Grandmothers’childrearing practices can

be improved with training. Grandmothers can play an

important role in raising children to increase women’s

participation in the workforce and to help support the

family economically.

Received: 19 January 2021Revised: 30 November 2021Accepted: 5 March 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12713

© 2022 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:993–1013. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 993

The family is the most basic unit of society and a universal phenomenon of indispensable

importance. Under normal circumstances, children are born into a family that provides the care

and support they need to survive (Özmen, 2004). Considered as a system, the family is a social

structure in which the members interact with each other. The system itself is divided into subsys-

tems. These subsystems also interact with each other, and specific situations within the family

can affect other family members and the system as a whole (Özabacı& Erkan, 2017). Many

families include grandparents in addition to parents. Grandparents are important members of

the family system (Lussier et al., 2002). They can take on different roles in the family, including

arbitrator between parents and grandchildren, role model, family protector, symbol of continu-

ity of the family, family historian, counselor, supporter, value transmitter, and contributor in

the development of personality (Mehta & Thang, 2012). The fact that grandparents hold such

an important position in the family ensures their participation in the family system and raising

children. Such involvement is found in many cultures around the world (Choi et al., 2016).

However, changes and transformations in the family structure in today’s world have imposed

additional roles and responsibilities on grandparents.

Increased life expectancy, decreased fertility rates, changes to traditional marriage models,

increased divorce rates and prevalence of single-parent families, and the inclusion of women in

the labor force have diversified discussions and research on family. One of the topics affected

by this diversity is the change in grandparent–grandchild relationships (Kemp, 2007). Grand-

parents have increasingly become a source of economic and emotional support for families and

play the role of mediator in the family (Timonen & Arber, 2012). They undertake the role of

grandchild care in cases of family life crises, such as drug addiction, frequent partner change,

death, chronic disease, incarceration, or child abuse. In addition, grandparents may provide

care for their grandchildren when both parents work outside the home (Goodman &

Silverstein, 2001; Richards & Harris, 2001), a common way for parents to receive help from

grandparents to solve the childcare problem (Dellmann-Jenkins et al., 2002; Goodman &

Silverstein, 2001; Hirshorn et al., 2000; Richards & Harris, 2001; Weston & Qu, 2009). Various

grandparent roles are mentioned in the literature regarding diverse familial situations and

conditions (Herlofson & Hagestad, 2012; Timonen & Arber, 2012; Villar et al., 2010).

GRANDPARENTING ROLE IN THE FAMILY

In the literature, well-established theories (family systems theory, Erikson’s psychosocial devel-

opment theory, life flow theory, etc.) define the traditional roles of grandparenthood. In addi-

tion, there are also explanations that classify the relationship between grandparents and their

grandchildren in terms of emotional intimacy (Triado et al., 2005) and qualitative differences in

grandparenting styles (Cherlin & Furstenberg, 1992). In this research, instead of focusing on the

traditional roles of grandparents in the family, attention has been drawn to their role in the

changing family order. This role is the experience of grandparents who solve the childcare prob-

lem in the family by providing care for their grandchildren while the parents work.

In cases where parents are unable to fulfill their parenting responsibilities, such as death,

divorce, drug addiction, abuse and neglect, arrest, HIV/AIDS, or mental illness (Jendrek, 1994;

Hayslip et al., 1998; Pinson-Millburn et al., 1996), grandparents assume the caregiving role.

When a child is completely left in the care of the grandparent(s), grandparents may literally play

a lifesaving role for the child. This is described in the literature using terms such as guardian

grandmother and primary caregiver (Timonen & Arber, 2012; Villar et al., 2010). In this case,

grandparents act as a safety net or social resource to be used in family crises, especially for

nuclear families (Bates, 2019).

Grandparents also have roles called mother savers or family savers (Herlofson &

Hagestad, 2012), in which they support families by providing childcare, without assuming full

994 FAMILY RELATIONS