ABSTRACT

The purpose of this survey study was to investigate characteristicsfor grandparent-headed families. The interview was administered to57 grandparents and their grandchildren who were recipients of thegovernment-supported program on grandparents raising grandchildren.Some socio-demographic informations on the grandparentsheadedfamilies, levels of stress or burden owing to caring for thegrandchildren, quality of services given to the grandparents-headedfamilies, and health-related indices such as IDL, IADL, MMSE,mini nutritional assessment, and fall index were measured from thegrandparents. Most grandparents were female and septuagenarians,and had a low-level educational background. They had cared fortheir grandchildren for almost 10 years, and the longer they caredfor them, the worse their health conditions were. Some of themshould earn extra money thru farm-working in order to overcomefinancial hardships. Almost two-thirds of them had suffered fromchronic diseases. The number of welfare services they wanted toreceive from the community service centers was over 16 but thenumber of services that had been receiving was 2.3 on average. Itwas discussed that we need to show more societal concern for thegrandparent-headed families.