UVic Social Workers Study the Surge in "Grannycare"

For years, the relieved cry of loving but exhausted grandmothers after a day or afternoon spent with grandchildren has been, "I love them, but it's great to be able to give them back." But what about those grandmothers who don't hand their grandchildren over to their parents at the end of the day -- those who, instead, take their grandchildren home as they unexpectedly find themselves on the "mommy track" again later in life?

A group of UVic social work researchers wants to know about the phenomenon they call "intergenerational child rearing" and what care agencies refer to as "custodial grandparenting." Whatever you call it, it's an increasing trend among a group of women who are all-but-invisible to census takers, policy analysts and child welfare agencies.

"We used to ask parents how many kids they have. Now we're asking kids how many parents they have," says Pat MacKenzie of UVic's school of social work, principal investigator for the three-year project, which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

"It's one of those things that when you start studying it you notice it's everywhere," says fellow researcher Barb Whittington. "Watching my friends become grandparents twigged my interest. Then I started having students say they couldn't continue classes because they had to help care for their grandchildren, after they'd saved up the money to come back to university in their 50s. Their whole lives shifted."

Team member and school of social work director Leslie Brown found grandparents were always among the caregivers in the Aboriginal communities she worked with, "but they weren't always officially recognized as such by the government. Curiosity brought me to this project."

Marilyn Callahan discovered that the teen moms that she studied relied on the children's grandmothers for care. "Obviously, they were forming a child welfare system that no one noticed. It seemed like a rigourous kind of life they were leading."

Gayle Ployer, the project's research co-ordinator, was attracted by the fact that the intergenerational care giving was provided primarily by women.

The researchers will start collecting data this fall and are in the midst of identifying potential study participants and project advisory group members.

Grandmothers who are caring for their grandchildren, and who might be interested in participating in this research project or simply sharing their stories, may contact Gayle Ployer, Project Manager at gployer@uvic.ca or (250) 472-4129.

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