Grandparent kinship carers: the pleasure, the pain
Sep 2024
Written by Lynne McPherson Noel Macnamara
Today in Australia, the preference for and growth of kinship care has meant that the majority of children in out-of-home care are now placed in relative or kinship care arrangements (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2024). Whilst the overall rates of children in out-of-home care nationally remained stable between 2018 and 2022, the proportion of children placed in kinship care rose from 47.2% to 54.0% of Australia’s total out-of-home care population (AIHW, 2024).
Children and young people being raised by kin is widely considered the preferred option compared to non-relative residential or foster care, as kinship care provides a connection to family, community and culture, family protection and support from the trauma of forced removal, helps to improve resilience-building skills, and fosters a sense of belonging and identity, while also offering potentially more stable living arrangements.
Although of mounting importance, comparatively little attention has been given to the risk factors and protective factors surrounding secondary trauma among grandparent kinship carers.
As researchers, we have recently completed our Australian study involving 428 grandparent carers sharing their experiences of caring for their grandchildren as survey respondents, with nine of those carers participating in individual in-depth interviews. Findings suggest that the pleasure of watching their grandchildren grow was a privilege for many. Alongside this privilege, many experienced multiple and complex levels of stress, distress, and trauma, exacerbated by a service system that did not appear to want to hear or understand. Implications for policy, practice, and further research are highlighted.
The journey to becoming a custodial grandparent is both a “moment” and a “process” (Roe et al., 1994). The moment is when a child comes into the care of their grandparents, and the process is the series of family crises that have played out alongside social, cultural, political, and economic circumstances leading to that moment.
When published, our research report will shine a light on the experiences of grandparents caring for their grandchildren and the intricate challenges they face in the “moment” and “process” of kinship care. In particular, it looks at the particulars of challenging family relationships that complicate the process of caring. It highlights experiences of violence, fatigue, generational trauma, and lack of institutional support in mediating the secondary traumas they experience in this care work.
We concluded that there are three interrelated issues that heighten the risk of secondary trauma for grandparent carers.
- The pathway to becoming a custodial grandparent carer
The pathway to becoming a custodial grandparent may be a painful one, in that it is likely to have arisen during a time of crisis and family breakdown. This may have resulted from parental substance abuse, domestic or interpersonal violence, mental illness, child neglect and abuse, death, or incarceration. Traumatic events such as these may impact the entire family. In matters of kinship care, these circumstances are more than “background information”, as these tragic circumstances become part of the child’s story, embedded within the grandparent-child relationship. This is fertile ground for secondary trauma to take hold.
- Ongoing family conflict and violence
Kinship carers may be exposed to continuing violent and abusive behaviours from their adult child, that is, their grandchild’s parent. Grandparents have reported both direct and indirect experiences of violence, including physical injuries, which are compounded by age-related health conditions (McPherson et al., 2022), which heightens experiences of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts (Sandberg, 2016). Due to this and other challenges, Ingham and Mikardo (2022) found that grandparents may struggle with contradictory feelings of pain and pleasure, which may influence their kinship experience, including feelings of guilt for depriving the parent of their child.
- Caring for children who have been exposed to trauma and adverse childhood experiences
Custodial grandparents also face challenges raising grandchildren who have trauma histories, as they are uniquely bound to the traumatic events that led to their grandchild being placed with them (Dolbin-MacNab, 2006). Trauma can profoundly affect children’s behaviour, feelings, relationships, learning, physical health, and view of the world.
Despite the likely considerable impact of the combination of these risk factors upon kinship carers, relatively little research has explored how kinship carers may themselves experience (primary) trauma and (secondary) trauma arising from witnessing their grandchild’s trauma. Grandparent carers may be subjected to demands associated with their grandchild’s trauma, and may be subjected to potentially traumatising events (e.g., verbal or physical violence by the parent of the child). These circumstances may exist within a service system context that does not respond with understanding and support.
If kinship care is to become the mainstay of out-of-home care in Australia, a much more sophisticated understanding of the relational complexities must be reflected in the service system responses. Only then will the rights and unique needs of grandchildren who live with their grandparent carers be appropriately addressed.
If you are a kinship carer, or work with kinship carers, CETC has launched an online self-paced course for kinship carers! Ordinary People, Extraordinary Hearts is an on-demand training program designed to support kinship carers and increase access to their developing skills and understanding of safe, nurturing, and healing care for children and young people.
References
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2024). Child Protection Australia 2021–22. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/child-protection/child-protection-australia-2021-22/contents/about
Dolbin-MacNab, M. L., Smith, G. C., & Hayslip, B. (2020). Reunification in custodial grandfamilies. Family Relations, 70, 225–245. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12487
Ingham, D., & Mikardo, J. (2022). Kinship care: uncannily close for comfort? Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 48(3), 334–350. https://doi.org/10.1080/0075417X.2022.2140180
McPherson, L., Gatwiri, K., Day, K., Parmenter, N., Mitchell, J., & Macnamara, N. (2022). “The most challenging aspect of this journey has been dealing with child protection”: Kinship carers’ experiences in Australia. Children and Youth Services Review, 139, 106550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106550
Roe, K. M., Minkler, M., & Barnwell, R. (1994). The assumption of caregiving: Grandmothers raising the children of the crack cocaine epidemic. Qualitative Health Research, 4(3), 281–303. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973239400400303
Sandberg, L. (2016). Being there for my grandchild–grandparents’ responses to their grandchildren’s exposure to domestic violence. Child & Family Social Work, 21(2), 136-145. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12123
