Abstract
Despite being a nearly universal role played by middle-aged and older adults, the experience of being a grandparent is highly individualized, stemming from its tenuous and countertransitional nature. This individualized nature of grandparenting is influenced by its multifaceted and dynamic nature, wherein this symposium brings together five papers reflecting these characteristics in an effort to understand grandparenting more fully. Montoro-Rodriguez and Ramsey explore issues of diversity across race and ethnicity in both theoretical and dynamic, intergenerational terms. Complementing this perspective is a paper by Walker exploring an understudied dimension of grandparenting, i.e., the grief experienced by such persons in coping with the death of a grandchild, the loss of the normative aspects of grandparenting when such persons assume caregiving responsibilities, and the physical/emotional separation from a grandchild. Yorgason and Serrao Hill discuss the intergenerational dimensions of health and grandparenting, stressing the qualitative changes in such relationships along variations in grandparents’ health. Jarrott and colleagues’ paper redefines grandparenting in terms of middle aged and older persons serving as the functional grandparents for youth whose grandparents are not available to them. Musil and her colleagues examine the constructs of resourcefulness and resilience as they apply to grandparents, stressing the theoretical bases and the multiple criteria for each in the context of interventions to enhance them and as key variables influencing grandparents and their grandchildren. Discussant Fruhauf brings these multiple perspectives together in painting a picture of grandparenting as an evolving role, stressing its interactional and dynamic qualities.