Stress related factors among primary and part-time caregiving grandmothers of Kenyan grandchildren

The present study examined whether the total stress experienced by 241 caregiving grandmothers was linked to levels of care provided, child behavioral difficulty, and perceived availability of emotional and instrumental support. One hundred and twenty eight of these participants adopted their orphaned grandchildren on full-time basis. The rest (n = 113) were grandmothers providing partial parenting roles in households that also included one of these children's biological parents. The results indicated that the full-time grandmothers experienced significantly higher levels of stress than did the part-time caregivers. The total stress experienced was related to these participants' perception of child behavioral difficulty and limited instrumental support.