Grandparent Involvement, Parenting Stress and Children's Academic School Readiness

Background and Purpose  Academic school readiness in early childhood is a significant aspect of child development that reflects successful adjustment and socialization of the child (Cowan, Cowan, Schulz, & Heming, 1994).  Previous research has indicated negative parental influence such as parenting stress as risk factors to positive child development (Dotterer, Iruka, & Pungello, 2012), while grandparent involvement has been identified as resources that may moderate the inverse relationship between negative parenting and child development (Denham & Smith, 1989; Greenfield, 2011).  Although a host of studies have reported the role of parents on child outcomes, little research has examined grandparents’ influence on children.  To address this gap, this study investigated both parents’ and grandparents’ influences on 5-year-olds’ school readiness. Parenting stress is hypothesized to have an inverse relationship with school readiness whereas grandparent involvement is expected to have a positive association with school readiness.  In addition, grandparent involvement is hypothesized as a moderator in the parenting stress and school readiness relationship.   

Methods  Data for this study was obtained from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a nationally representative birth cohort study in 20 U.S. cities with populations of 200,000 or more.  Analysis sample (N=1,616) was based the 4^thwave of the study that collected data on families and their child when the focal child was 5 years old.  The dependent variable, school readiness, was assessed at the 5-year In-Home Assessment based on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT).  Parenting stress was represented by a scale of 4 items that were reported by mothers.  Grandparent involvement was assessed by an item that asked mothers how often their child saw the maternal grandparents ranging from “never” to “once a week or more”. To understand the different roles of demographics, parenting stress, and grandparent involvement on children’s school readiness, variables were included in multivariate analyses in blocks.

Results  As hypothesized, more grandparent involvement was associated with higher PPVT scores whereas parenting stress was negatively related with PPVT scores, controlling for the covariates in this study.  However, grandparent involvement did not moderate the effect of parenting stress on PPVT scores.  Family income and mother’s education had a positive association with children’s school readiness.  In terms of gender, girls had higher PPVT scores than boys.  Compared to white children, black and Hispanic children had significantly lower PPVT scores.

Conclusion and Implications  This study contributes to much limited literature on grandparents’ influence on children.  The recent demographic shift in the U.S. has been marked by an increasing number of older adults and diverse subgroups of children, some of which will inevitably be at higher risk due to lack of social support and resources.  Findings of this study suggest that grandparent involvement can serve as a significant resource and contribute to positive child development.  As such, social work practitioners working with children and families ought to consider the role of grandparents in programs and services.  Future research should further examine more refined contextual factors focusing on grandparents in children’s development.