Depression and caregiver mastery in grandfathers caring for their grandchildren

Kin caregiving research tends to focus on the experiences of grandmothers. Often unnoticed and underserved are grandfathers who also take on this responsibility. Here, two groups of grandfathers participated in focus group interviews to discuss their experiences as caregivers to their grandchildren. Common themes for the grandfathers were the feeling of missing freedom, experiencing child rearing differently now than they had with their own children, and fear of what would happen to the children should their health fail. Thirty-three grandfathers also answered questions about themselves; their grandchild; need, use, and satisfaction with formal services; depression; and caregiving mastery. A sample of 33 grandmothers selected from a previous study was matched to the grandfathers on age, race, and marital status. Differences in depressive symptoms between the grandfathers and grandmothers were statistically significant. There was no statistically significant difference between the grandparent caregivers on caregiving mastery. These findings suggest that there may be differences in the impact of caregiving for grandmothers and grandfathers. These differences should be further investigated.