Grandmothers serve as primary care-givers for a significant number of South African children. Previous research has documented that South African grandmothers experience physical, financial, emotional and social adversity. However, less attention has been given to South African grandmothers' resilience, or their capacity to respond to the challenges associated with raising their grandchildren. Utilising Walsh's (2003; 2012) family resilience model, this qualitative study examined resilience and resilient processes among 75 Black South African grandmothers raising grandchildren. Grandmothers participated in structured interviews during a weekly visit to a local luncheon (social) club. Results indicated that the grandmothers perceived themselves as engaging in a number of resilient processes, including relying on their spirituality, accessing sources of instrumental support, and seeking emotional support and companionship from their grandchildren and larger communities. Grandmothers also believed that focusing on their grandchildren contributed to their sense of resilience. This involved maintaining a sense of responsibility to their grandchildren, having hope for their grandchildren's futures and finding enjoyment in the grandmother–grandchild relationship. The findings reveal that, by engaging in various resilient processes, South African grandmothers raising grandchildren perceive themselves and their families as having strategies they can utilise in order to successfully cope with adversity. Findings also highlight the need for prevention and intervention efforts designed to promote grandmothers' resilience, as well as the resilience of their grandchildren.
The use of FLR facilitates enhanced understanding and communication during relocation. Older adults' health status as well as family dynamics need to be assessed prior to organizing a FLR to accommodate each families' unique needs.
Study findings provide insight into how families organize individual and interpersonal narratives and use these narratives during transitional times. FLR can aid families in making a smoother and fulfilling move to an ALF and other late life transitions.
Non-familial intergenerational (NFIG) relationships can complement conventional therapeutic interventions. We discuss the intergenerational gap and structural changes families have experienced over the last several decades. We advocate for an integrative framework combining non-familial intergenerational opportunities with conventional therapeutic interventions. Finally, we address logistical and ethical dimensions of the integrative framework and participants' fitness, motivation, potential, and needs within non-familial intergenerational programs/partnerships.Keywords: non-familial, intergenerational, family therapy, ecological framework, generational gap Key Points 1 Individuals and families seeking assistance from therapists are often experiencing distress resulting from absent or dysfunctional familial generational ties. While therapists work with individuals to re-establish balance, normal family functioning, and healthy patterns of interaction within a family system, it is not always possible to re-establish functional familial ties. Thus, intergenerational gaps may result from geographic separation, unexpected loss, or when dysfunctional relationships are severed. 2 Intergenerational programs have proven mutually beneficial for youth and elders possessing diverse abilities and needs. Surrogate intergenerational familial relationships can complement traditional family therapy clinical practice. 3 Individual development and family systems theories inform our integrated ecological framework for therapists to incorporate non-familial intergenerational partnerships to meet the needs of clients and promote familial and community resilience. 4 Clinicians, practically and ethically, must consider goodness of fit, motivations, needs, and skills when utilizing non-familial intergenerational partnerships.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.