Blog #12

One of the last topics that we discussed in class was the role of grandparent-grandchild relationship. I found it interesting when we broke into groups and discussed our relationship with our grandparents and their roles in family. Also, we were given the chance to listen to what other people had to say (found this part to be very interesting) and we were given the opportunity to share with the class. For me personally, I have two very different relationships with my grandparents. One set of my grandparents are deceased and my other two grandparents are divorced. I live close to my grandmother (when at home) and my relationship with her is very strong as I see and talk to her all the time. However, my grandfather lives in South Carolina and I only see him on the major holidays so my relationship is non existent when those times are not around. These discussions, along with my own thoughts, got me to thinking what the lives are like for these grandparents when they actually parent their grandchildren. I found a article titled "Grandparents Who Parent Their Grandchildren: Effects on Lifestyle". The study of the article looked at a sample of 114 grandparents who provide daily care to their grandchildren. The study found that 40% of the grandparents that their contact with their friends changed as a result of their taking care of their grandchildren. The study also found that half of the subjects said that they has "some" or "a lot of" problems with family because they were providing care to their grandchildren. The study also found that most married grandparents reported no change in having time for their spouse or in marital satisfaction with their spouse.

This last finding surprised me because I have learned in past FSW courses that marital satisfaction decreases once children enter the equation. So I was surprised to see that once Grandparents had to take care of their children that their marital satisfaction remained strong and unchanging. The other results I was not surprised at.

Questions to consider for the class?

Do any of these findings surprise you or do you feel that they are all right were they should be?

Do you feel that once people hit a certain age, they are better prepared to deal with children?

Do you think that older adults are good parents or do you feel that they do not do a good job due to their age?

Blog #11

In class, we discussed the role that some grandparents have raising grandchildren. The first thing that went through my mind is that raising children is hard and takes a lot of time and energy. I am a student with a health background so these discussions got me curious to if this action is beneficial to the health of the grandparent. I decided to do some research on the topic and came across an article titled "The Health of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: Results of a National Study". In the review of literature the author of the article state that previous research has suggested that caregiving grandparents are vulnerable to a host of problems including depression, social isolation and poverty. The main study of the article has several findings. It found that custodial grandparents were significantly more likely than non caregiving grandparents to report limitations in each of these six areas: mobility inside the house, completing daily household tasks, climbing stairs, walking 6 blocks, doing heavy tasks, and working for pay. In fact, the study found that three out of ten caregivers had trouble doing their day-t0-day household tasks.

Questions to consider for the class

Do you find these findings to be surprising or are they results that you would expect?

Do you think that with people living longer, this will continue to be a problem as we head into the future?

Do you think that modern advancements such as medicine or technology can aid in this child rearing?

As family study students, what can be done to help future grandparents out in this burden?

Blog #10

During the semester we discussed, in detail, the role of being sexual being for aging adults. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of older adults maintaining their sexual identity. As a class, we discussed our thoughts and feelings on the subject and some of the feelings that the class showed was very interesting to me. This discussion and lecture gave me the motivation to research the topic further. During this research I came across and article called, "How important is sex in later life? The views of older people". This article is a recent study (2002) and it interested me because it took a qualitative approach to sex in regards to later life relationships. The article found that participants who did not consider sex to be of any importance to them neither had a current sexual partner, nor felt that they would have another sexual partner in their lifetime. Those who did have a sexual partner placed an importance on having sex in their life. Also, when sex seemed to slow down or some age was the reason that was given in order to cope with the situation. The study also found that sex was easier in later life relationships when the relationship was not short. I believe that these findings show that we, as a culture need to place a greater importance on sex for the aging population. I think this because I believe that sex for older adults is a healthy behavior to participate in.

Questions to consider for the class

Do any of these findings surprise you in anyway? Why or why not?

What implications do these findings tell you about where to further develop the field of later life relationships?