The experience of stress and personal growth among grandparents of children with and without intellectual disability.
Grandparents of kids with ID are not doomed to extra stress—check their resources first.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Findler (2014) asked grandparents about stress and personal growth. Half raised a grandchild with intellectual disability. Half raised a typically developing grandchild.
Everyone filled out the same survey. The team compared stress levels and growth scores between the two groups.
What they found
Grandparents of kids with ID did not report more negative feelings. In some cases they scored lower stress than the other group.
Stress and growth came from different family resources, not from the diagnosis itself.
How this fits with other research
Findler et al. (2009) saw the same pattern in teenage siblings. Siblings of kids with ID showed higher personal, social, and spiritual growth than peers.
Bassett-Gunter et al. (2017) later interviewed grandparents of children with autism. They also found both deep challenges and strong joy, matching the mixed picture here.
Heald et al. (2020) looked at adult siblings and saw worse mental health. The difference is age: adult siblings carry long-term care roles, while grandparents often step in for shorter times.
Why it matters
Do not assume grandparents are overwhelmed. Ask about their support, money, and coping style. A grandparent with strong resources may feel growth, not strain. Use this insight when you coach families. Invite grandparents to sessions if they show readiness, and link them to respite or financial aid if stress shows up.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aim of this research was to examine the contribution of internal and external resources to stress and personal growth among grandparents of children with and without an intellectual disability. Ninety-four grandparents of children with intellectual disability and 105 grandparents of children without intellectual disability completed the following scales: Multidimensional Experience of Grandparenthood; Multidimensional Scale for Perceived Social Support, Level of Differentiation of Self Scale, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Results indicate that group differences are reflected in higher negative emotions among grandparents of children without intellectual disability. In addition, both stress and growth are related to better health, lower level of education, family cohesiveness, and negative emotions. However, whereas stress is associated with the internal resource of self-differentiation, the external resource of social support, and the cost of grandparenthood, growth is associated with gender and the symbolic and behavioral aspects of the grandparenting role. This study aimed to correct the nearly exclusive focus in the literature on negativity, stress, and the burden of grandparenting children with intellectual disability, as well as to test the pervasive assumption that the absence of disability results in an almost entirely positive grandparenting experience with nearly no negative affect.
Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2014 · doi:10.1352/1934-9556-52.1.32