Analysis Of The Influence And Mechanism Of Grandparenting On The Depression Mood Of Grandparents

Because of market competition and the increase of women’s entry into labor market,parents often have no time to take care of their children and the number of grandparents who take care of grandchildren is growing steadily.Grandparenting,a common social activity,has an important influence on grandparents’ mental health,especially depression mood.The role strain theory indicates that grandparenting imposes stress on older adults because of difficulty of multiple roles.And this can increase depression mood of grandparents.In contrast,the role enhancement theory believes that grandparenting is beneficial to grandparents’ mental health,because grandparents can get extra resources,privilege,and power by taking care of their grandchildren.What’s more,the conclusions of empirical studies about the relationship between grandparenting and depression mood are not consistent.This may connect with culture background.With the influence of traditional culture,Chinese old people want to make contributions for their family and regard grandparenting as their own responsibility and obligation.Chinese society also expect older adults to participate in grandparenting.Therefore,the association between grandparenting and depression in China may be different from its counterpart in western countries.So,this study aims to verify the the relationship between grandparenting and depression mood in China and provide new perspective for society to improve well-being of older adults.Previous studies show that grandparents can receive financial support from adult children,which can be seen as compensation for grandparenting.And financial support can improve grandparents’ depression mood directly.The role of “substitute parents” can bring some benefits such as moral support,financial support,and privilege,which can improve self-worth of grandparents.In other words,the effect of grandparenting on depression mood may be mediated by self-worth.Additionally,grandparenting is embedded into concrete family conditions,and grandparents’ mental health may be influenced by other family members.Grandchildren’s behaviour is an important feedback on grandparenting.Grandchildren’s problem behaviour is regarded as the main source of parenting stress.Problem behaviour can affect depression and self-worth by increasing parenting stress.Problem behaviour may have a moderation effect.Thus,this study have three main problems:(1)whether grandparenting participation have a positive effect on depression mood of Chinese granparents;(2)whether self-worth mediate the relation between grandparenting and depression mood and whether financial support mediate the relation between grandparenting and depression mood;(3)whether problem behaviour moderate the relation between grandparenting and depression mood.Study 1 used meta-analysis to explore the relationship between grandparenting participation and depression mood of Chinese grandparents.Because primary studies of meta-analysis doesn’t provide enough information about intensity of grandparenting,and previous studies show that intensity of grandparenting have an impact on the relationship between grandparenting and depression mood.Study 2divided grandparenting into three intensity(low,median,and high),which can help us accurately explore mediation effect of self-worth and financial support.Study 3 verify the moderation effect of problem behaviour.The main results are as follows:(1)grandparents who take care of their grandchildren have less depression than those who does not;(2)self-worth mediate the relation between grandparenting intensity and depression mood,and financial support mediate the relation between grandparenting intensity and depression mood;(3)problem behaviour moderate the relationship between grandparenting intensity and self-worth.