Deconstructing the Family Functioning-Caregiver Stress Relationship in Informal Kinship Care: The Impact of Parent-Child Contact and Parent-Caregiver Relationships

Background and Purpose: This paper examines caregiver ratings of frequency of parent contact and the quality of relationships with parents as predictors of kinship caregiver parenting stress. A substantial body of research describes the growing number of grandparents and other family members who are raising a relative's child and the parenting stress they experience. The empirical evidence indicates that behavioral functioning of the related child, adequacy of financial and material resources, social support, and family functioning contribute to caregiver stress. Less attention has been given to contact with birth parents or the role they play in the lives of children and caregivers.

Methods: 207 informal kinship caregivers (22 to 72 years of age, 90% African American) of children aged 2 to 11 years participated in structured interviews that incorporated standardized measures of parenting stress, child behavioral functioning, financial and material resources, social support, family functioning, and caregiver ratings of the frequency of contact and quality of relationships between parents, their children, and kinship caregiver. OLS regression models examined the impact of caregivers' ratings of the frequency and quality of mother-child, father-child, mother-caregiver, and father-caregiver relationships on caregiver parenting stress, controlling for child behavior, financial and material resources, social support and family functioning.

Results: Caregiver ratings of frequency of father-child contact and the “friendliness” of the mother-caregiver and father-caregiver relationship were significant predictors of caregiver stress. More frequent father-child contact increased caregiver parenting stress (standardized beta = .282, p=.003) while friendlier mother-caregiver (beta = -.157, p=.055) and father-caregiver (beta = -.210, p=.023) relationships decreased parenting stress.

Post-hoc analyses revealed more complex relationships than originally hypothesized:

• Higher quality parent-child relationships and friendlier parent-caregiver relationships were associated with lower levels of child behavior problems and healthier family functioning.

• However, frequent father-child and father-caregiver contact were associated with less healthy family functioning but significantly lower levels of child behavior problems.

• Very frequent (at least weekly) mother-child contact was also associated with less healthy family functioning. In addition, children who had very frequent or no contact with their mothers displayed significantly higher levels of child behavior problems than children who had contact with their mothers monthly to several times a year.

Conclusions and Implications: The analysis suggests that attempts to prevent and reduce stress for informal kinship caregivers should consider the role of the children's parents and the parent-caregiver relationship. While less child and caregiver contact with fathers may reduce caregiver stress and family conflict, more contact is associated with healthier child behavioral functioning. Frequency of contact with the mother is even more complex. Interventions designed to reduce caregiver stress, improve family functioning, and/or improve child behavioral functioning for kinship caregiving families must include ways of managing parent-child and parent-caregiver contact and strengthening the quality of these relationships. Future research is needed to further illuminate birth parent-kinship caregiver-child relationships, and to develop and test the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve family functioning and reduce child behavior problems and caregiver stress.