Dominant personal values and stress-coping strategies in relation to health and social conditions of kinship foster carers aged 60+ providing care for their biological grandchildren

Abstract

Background: The subject of personal values prompts deep reflection in the context of foster care provided by kinship carers, in particular grandparents, towards their biological grandchildren. Taking over the care of their own grandchildren may play a confrontational role in the context of grandparents' personal values, causing a sense of failure in their parenting skills in relation to their biological children, which has various effects on the creation of attachment relationships and the methods of raising grandchildren, who are often already affected by traumatic experiences. Grandparents also have to face public deliberation whether they are in a position to provide proper care for their grandchild or grandchildren when they most probably made various mistakes while raising and caring for their own children.

Aim: Identification of dominant personal values and stress-coping strategies in relation to the health and social resources of people aged 60 + providing kinship foster care for their grandchildren.

Methods: This is a continuation of research conducted in 2018-2019 in north-western Poland. The target population comprised 189 families with kinship carers aged 60 + . Consent to participate was obtained from 78 carers, i.e. 41.27% of those eligible for the study. The study was conducted using the diagnostic survey method. The study used the following standardized scales and questionnaires: PVL, Mini-COPE and NEO-FFI, as well as nursing care sheets and an original survey to determine the profile of a kinship foster carer.

Results: Over 75% of the respondents identified "good health, physical and mental fitness" as the dominant personal value. For 50% of the respondents "successful family life" was a symbol of happiness and for 45.16% of them it was "good health". As for the stress-coping strategies, the highest average rank of 4.84 was assigned to the "active coping" strategy, followed by a value of 4.56 for the "planning" strategy, and then "acceptance" and "positive reframing". The strategy which had the lowest rank of 0.08 was "using psychoactive substances", which did not receive a rank value higher than 2 and was assigned a value of 0 by 95.16% of the respondents. The dominant personality traits among kinship foster carers were: conscientiousness (mean ± SD = 3.34 ± 0.41), followed by agreeableness and extroversion. Neurotic personality traits were reported by the smallest number of respondents (mean ± SD = 1.12 ± 0.63).

Conclusions: Studies have shown that grandparents taking on the responsible role of kinship foster carers for their grandchildren are guided by love. They point to their health as an important resource. They perform their duties conscientiously and are open to new knowledge. They are capable of dealing with stress constructively. Their resourcefulness and a sense of purpose could increase with improved housing and financial conditions.

Keywords: Foster care; Grandparents; Personal values; Personality; Stress.