Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 May 6;8(5):e09365.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09365. eCollection 2022 May.

Psychological outcomes and support in grandparents whose grandchildren suffer from a severe physical illness: A systematic review

Cristina Priboi  1 , Barbara Gantner  1   2 , Pauline Holmer  1 , Luisa Neves da Silva  1 , Eva Maria Tinner  3   4   5 , Katharina Roser  1 , Gisela Michel  1
Affiliations
Review

Psychological outcomes and support in grandparents whose grandchildren suffer from a severe physical illness: A systematic review

Cristina Priboi et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Objective: When a child is facing a severe physical illness, the entire family is affected. Grandparents provide invaluable emotional and practical support to families dealing with this situation, but little is known about the psychological impact on them. We aimed to synthesize the evidence on 1) the psychological outcomes experienced by grandparents when a grandchild is seriously ill and 2) the psychological support needed and used by grandparents.

Methods: We systematically searched four databases with the search terms "grandchild", "grandparents", "psychological outcomes" and "severe diseases", and we used narrative synthesis to analyze the extracted data.

Results: Our search identified 3319 records of which 12 were included in the analysis. Grandparents reported experiencing a wide spectrum of feelings, with fear being the most prevalent feeling. Grandparents rarely accessed professional services due to their lack of knowledge about available programs or because of the absence of formal services addressing their needs. In consequence, grandparents asked and received informal support from other family members, friends or their church community.

Conclusion: Grandparents need to be better informed about their grandchild's disease and the available support services in order to reduce their psychological burden and to better attend to the needs of the other family members.

Keywords: Grandparent; Psychological outcomes; Severe illness; Support.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Mitchell W. Research Review: the role of grandparents in intergenerational support for families with disabled children: a review of the literature. Child Fam. Soc. Work. 2007;12(1):94–101.
    1. Lindstrom C., Aman J., Norberg A.L. Increased prevalence of burnout symptoms in parents of chronically ill children. Acta Paediatr. 2010;99(3):427–432. - PubMed
    1. McGrath P. Beginning treatment for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: insights from the parents’ perspective. Oncol. Nurs. Forum. 2002;29(6):988–996. - PubMed
    1. Poder U., Ljungman G., von Essen L. Posttraumatic stress disorder among parents of children on cancer treatment: a longitudinal study. Psychooncology. 2007;17(5):430–437. - PubMed
    1. Vrijmoet-Wiersma C.M., van Klink J.M., Kolk A.M., Koopman H.M., Ball L.M., Egeler R.M. Assessment of parental psychological stress in pediatric cancer: a review. J. Pediatr. Psychol. 2008;33(7):694–706. - PubMed