Concurrent Sessions 8 - (NBCC CE Credit: #1 hr and Conference Attendance Credit: #1 hr)

Made Possible by the Families and Health Section

311-01: Grandparent Contributions to Well-Being in Economically Disadvantaged and Ethnic Minority Families
Melissa A. Barnett, Ph.D., University of Arizona

311-02: Improving Dyadic Self-Care Practices in Grandparents and Their School Aged Grandchildren
Christine Fruhauf, Ph.D., Colorado State University; Loriena A. Yancura, Ph.D., CFLE, University of Hawaii at Manoa

311-03: Grandfamilies and the Public Policy Environment
Megan L. Dolbin-MacNab, Ph.D., LMFT, Virginia Tech

Chair/Discussant: Loriena A. Yancura, Ph.D., CFLE, University of Hawaii


Summary
Grandparents raising grandchildren are the €˜backbone' of the care system in the United States (Administration for Community Living, 2019). Due to heterogeneity in these families' circumstances and needs, the study of their mental health and well-being necessitates an understanding of multiple and intersecting influences. Speakers will discuss dynamic influences on the mental health of grandparent-headed families from their programs of research, each with a focus on grandchildren of a specific developmental age. The first paper will discuss how caregiving and support from highly involved non-custodial grandparents (i.e., coparenting grandparents) may be particularly critical for family wellbeing during early childhood, especially among economically disadvantaged and ethnic minority families (Barnett, Yancura, Wilmoth, & Sano, 2016; Yancura, Barnett, Sano, & Mammen, 2019). This presentation includes a focus on how the quality of the relationship between the grandparent and parent generations is linked to multigenerational wellbeing. The second paper will discuss a 6-week intervention to improve self-care practices among both grandparents and their school age grandchildren from a dyadic standpoint. Grandparent and grandchild interactions and relationships are important to sustaining results across time. The third paper will address how the public policy environment influences how grandparents with older grandchildren make decisions and allocate resources to maximize health and well-being (Dolbin-MacNab & Few-Demo, 2018; Smith, Infurna, Webster, Dolbin-MacNab, Crowley & Musil, 2019). The complementary presentations in this symposium will bring participants up to date on the dynamic, interdisciplinary, area of grandfamily research.

Objectives
-- Participants will Be able to explain how intersections among race, culture, geographical diversity, economic resources and sociopolitical factors influence the well-being and mental health of grandfamilies
-- Participants will Evaluate variations in how grandparents perform primary caregiving duties for their grandchildren across sociopolitical contexts
-- Participants will Identify contextual factors that influence resilience and needs in grandfamilies.