Intergenerational Ambivalence in Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: An Interpretative Perspective of Grandparents

• Main Authors: Wen, Tzu-i, 溫秭翊
• Other Authors: Lin, Ju-Pin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/8jhrgq

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 人類發展與家庭學系 === 99 === This study observes grandparents in skipped-generation families, discusses their role cognition and emotional recognition (emotion perceiving), dissects the ambivalence between them and their grandchildren, to further explores the influence of social support on these families. This research provides family education workers with more detailed insights into the life experiences of these grandparents who bring up their grandchildren. This author employed qualitative methods to proceed with data collection through three interview series. The author visited 6 grandparents, ranging from 56 to 74 years, with teenage grandchildren, and raising periods between 4 to 17 years. The primary research results are as follows: 1.Grandparents who raise their grandchildren perceive themselves as grandparents of common families, and can be categorized into the following characters: substitute caretaker, active life instructor, passive money provider, and active elders who actually enjoy raising their grandchildren. The interactions between grandparents and grandchildren include accompany, life participation, chat, and house chores division, etc. The fact whether these grandparents “actively fight for” or “passively accept” the role of taking care their grandchildren affects their own role cognition. 2.The grandparents of skipped generation families show their emotions traditionally, with love but distance. They have to unwillingly take on the responsibility of care due to vacancy of the middle generation, and in the duration of caring, they experience constant grief and sorrow from loss, also the joy of watching grandchildren growing up. Furthermore, they feel the need to face and adapt to the challenge and pressure that come along with taking care of their grandchildren. 3.According to the observed level of social and emotional ambivalence, the grandparents can be divided into four types: parents who are enjoying hardship, feeling both love and hatred , bearing hardship without complaint, and blaming everyone and everything. In Chinese families whose culture values familism, it’s possible for these grandparents to feel two types of ambivalences simultaneously, but the social conflicts that results from the society structure are more obvious in these families. Each generation-separating family has their unique life story, and the experiences of these grandparents of the families are also one and only. Through further investigation of these observations, the author finds that the resources are just like a shield guarding these families. The level of resources the grandparents possess helps the incomplete family structure and the feeling of ambivalence from caretaking of their grandchildren in different levels. Finally, this study provides suggestions for further study, as well as grandparents of generation-separating families and family education workers.