"Raising a Dad": Parenting Support and Psychological Stress Among African American Paternal Grandmothers Whose Sons Are Teenage Fathers.

Abstract

African American paternal grandmothers strengthen teenage-parent centered families by providing parenting support to teenage fathers. However, providing parenting support may increase their vulnerability to psychological stress. The purpose of this mixed-method dissertation was to review potential sources of stress and support in African American paternal grandmothers’ parenting support, use an adaptation of the Caregiving Stress Model to explore associations between parenting support and psychological stress via appraisal and mediating conditions, and interpret results in light of potential program and policy interventions. Using an Intersectional approach, I argued that paternal grandmothers experienced parenting support as a stressor uniquely due to the intersection of race, gender, motherhood, and the parenting of African American teenage fathers. The purpose of Study 1 was to identify differences in psychological stress based on parenting support and two factors affecting appraisal (timing into grandmotherhood and peer time), and whether these factors exacerbated or buffered an association between parenting support and psychological stress. Younger, off-time grandmothers and grandmothers who provided less parenting support experienced more stress. Having peers who were also grandmothers exacerbated stress for grandmothers providing less support. The purpose of Study 2 was to explore different facets of grandmothers’ satisfaction with their sons’ fathering practices, determine whether these different facets were directly associated with stress, and determine whether they mediated the association between parenting support and stress. The results revealed how grandmothers characterized satisfactory fathering practices, how these characterizations aligned with their expectations, and how grandmothers were inconsistent in assessing satisfaction. Conflict with the son about his fathering practices was associated with stress, but did not mediate the association between parenting support and psychological stress. The purpose of Study 3 was to determine whether grandmothers’ perceived relationship quality with sons and psychological stress were associated with stress, and examine whether perceived relationship quality mediated between parenting support and psychological stress. While perceived relationship quality was not associated with psychological stress, it did mediate the association between parenting support and psychological stress. The results of these studies suggest that more research and intervention is needed that addresses the diversity inherent in this population of African American grandmothers.