Abstract
The responsibilities associated with looking after grandchildren can be a source of considerable worry for grandparents if they are their primary caregivers. Most of the research on this topic has been conducted in the United States with grandparents who are caring for grandchildren because of family crisis. In contrast, this study focuses on grandparents in Thailand who are caring for grandchildren due to the migration of their adult children seeking income. Interviews were conducted with 48 grandparents from three provinces in Thailand. Using thematic analysis, we identified the major kinds of worries experienced by these grandparents: family relationships, finances, the risky behavior and safety of their grandchildren, and the future. We explore each of these worries in depth and contrast Thai grandparents’ experiences with those of grandparents in the United States.
Introduction
While family relationships can serve as a strong source of support, they can also promote feelings of tension and worry. Indeed, feeling responsible for family members is a key factor contributing to worry among older adults (Basevitz, Pushkar, Chaikelson, Conway, & Dalton, 2008). Grandparents who are raising grandchildren are likely to feel a particularly strong sense of family responsibility. In this article, we examine the worries of grandparents who care for grandchildren within “skipped-generation” households. Understanding their worries can suggest ways to support such households which can, in turn, guide practice and policy.
Skipped-Generation Households
Skipped-generation households form when the parental generation is absent due to several demographic factors that are occurring globally (Das & Zimmer, 2015). One cause of skipped-generation households is the death of the parent or a family crisis involving the parent generation. When parents experience addiction, illness, or incarceration, their ability to care for their children is affected. Crises like these may result in grandchildren being raised by their grandparents (Burnette, 1997; Fuller-Thompson, Minkler, & Driver, 1997; Shakya, Usita, Eisenberg, Weston, & Liles, 2012).
Another cause of skipped-generation households is the migration of the parent generation to find employment. In such cases, grandparents may step in to care for grandchildren as part of an overall strategy to enhance the economic and financial resources of the family. Based on their research in China, Baker and Silverstein (2102, p. 51) refer to grandparents’ role in this effort as “family maximizers” because they enable their adult children to leave home to find work. The adult migrants then send a portion of their salary back home (i.e., remittances) to support the intergenerational family (Baker & Silverstein, 2012). This strategy is quite common, particularly in Asia in countries such as China (Cong & Silverstein, 2012); Taiwan (Change & Hayter, 2011); and Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar (Knodel & Nguyen, 2014). In some of these countries, skipped-generation households make up a substantial portion of the living arrangements.
In rural Thailand—the site of the present research—skipped-generation households composed of grandparents and grandchildren represent 15% of living arrangements; this is generally due to the migration of the parents (Knodel, Teerawichitchainan, Prachuabmoh, & Pothisiri, 2015). Internal migration from rural to urban areas in Thailand is part of a long-standing effort to enhance economic opportunities for the family (Guest, Chamratrithirong, Archavanitkul, Piriyathamwong, & Richter, 1994). Urban areas often provide more job prospects than do rural areas (Osaki, 2003). When they migrate, young parents may not have access to affordable child care and often mistrust professional child care providers (Piotrowski, 2009). These parents may choose to leave their children behind in their rural village to be cared for by grandparents; under these conditions, it is expected they will send remittances to the grandparents who are raising their children (Knodel, Kespichayawattana, Saengtienchai, & Wiwatwanich, 2010).
Understanding the Worries of Grandparents
It is important to study worrying because it is a common activity for people (Borkovec, 1994), which may negatively influence both physical and mental health (Skarborn & Nicki, 1996; Wisocki, 1988). While there are many definitions of worry, one is particularly relevant to grandparents because it emerged from research with older people. Based on focus groups conducted in the United States with 58 older adults, who were chronic worriers, Wisocki (1994) developed the following definition: . . . worry is an involuntary, undesirable process of negatively-charged cognitions about a future event which cannot be resolved, but which occupies a central place in one’s mental state. It creates anxiety and depression, but is not as serious as either one. It is a useless, unnecessary process which may be triggered by a small event or it may deal with something large and important. (p. 255)
Significantly, Wisocki’s research further detected that worry about family, particularly children and grandchildren, was the most common concern among older adults who were chronic worriers.
Understanding the worries of grandparents who are raising grandchildren is critical for two major reasons. First, grandparents who are raising children are often experiencing parenting responsibilities that are “off-time” (Goodman, 2006, p. 134). That is, older adults may anticipate having more freedom and leisure as responsibilities decrease in their later years. In contrast, when grandparents are involved in raising grandchildren, they have many more demands on their time and resources while experiencing a decline in energy and functioning. It may be that the “off-time” parenting demands of grandparents raising grandchildren lead to unique kinds of worries. Second, worrying affects many aspects of functioning (Davis & Montgomery, 1997). When asked how worry affected their lives, the older adults who worried chronically in Wisocki’s (1994) research identified numerous effects on their well-being. Specifically, these older adults noted that worry interfered with their decision-making capabilities and their efficiency. They reported that worry affected their social relationships by making them feel more irritated, isolated, and withdrawn. Additionally, they observed that worry affected their appetite, their sleep, and their blood pressure. Finally, these chronic worriers noted that worry made them feel more insecure, anxious, and depressed.
Previous Research on Grandparents’ Worries
There is limited research on the specific worries of grandparents raising grandchildren; most extant research has been conducted in the United States. One exception is a study of grandmothers in Taiwan (Change & Hayter, 2011). In this study of 15 grandmothers who were raising grandchildren due to the parent generation’s migration for work, Change and Hayter (2011) found that the grandmothers worried that if their grandchildren became ill, their migrant children would blame them for letting the grandchildren become ill.
The small body of research on the worries of grandparents raising grandchildren in the United States point to several other concerns, one of which is financial. In a study that examined the daily diaries of 64 grandmothers living in Ohio, Musil, and Standing (2006) reported that financial concerns were expressed by over half of the grandmothers. The grandmothers were divided into three groups: a primary caregiver group that was raising grandchildren due to a family crisis, an intergenerational group who lived with their adult child and grandchild(ren), and a noncaregiving group. Those in the primary caregiver group were the most likely to be worried about finances (e.g., paying for food or household bills).
This lack of financial resources is related to other worries as well. For example, in a study of 141 grandmothers who were primary caregivers living in Ohio (Musil, Warner, McNamara, Rokoff, & Turek, 2008), caregivers were concerned that they could not cover the cost of their grandchildren’s medical needs. Similar worries emerged in a study of seven grandmothers living in Colorado who were primary caregivers for their grandchildren because their adult children had problems related to drugs or alcohol abuse (Williamson, Softas-Nall, & Miller, 2003). The grandmothers expressed concern about the expenses associated with caring for their grandchildren, including the need to pay for professional mental health services.
Grandparents caring for grandchildren also worry about their adult children, the parents of their grandchildren. In a study conducted by Williamson et al. (2003), grandmothers’ worries about their adult children had usually been longstanding. One source of stress for grandparents identified by Musil et al. (2008) was their adult children’s legal and custody issues. In some cases, adult children were not complying with the orders of the court and were thus unable to regain custody of their children. In other cases, in an effort to keep an adult child who was violent away from the house, grandparents obtained a restraining order from the court.
Grandparents also worry about relationships between their adult children, their grandchildren, and themselves. In the study conducted by Musil et al. (2008), some grandmothers expressed worries about impending visits from the adult child and the lack of respect the grandchildren felt for their parent. Others worried about adult children who were fighting with them over the custody of a grandchild the grandparent had been raising for many years.
An additional worry for grandparents was the health and mental health of their grandchildren. Musil et al. (2008) reported that grandchildren’s health problems were a major source of worry for grandparents. Williamson et al. (2003) noted that some grandmothers felt their grandchildren’s health problems stemmed from poor quality of care from their parents, including abuse and neglect.
Grandparents also worry about how they will deal with their grandchildren as they reach adolescence. Musil et al. (2008) described two kinds of worries related to grandchildren’s development. One worry was that their grandchildren would succumb to peer pressure in relation to drugs, dating, and sex. A second worry was about their ability to manage their grandchildren’s behavior when they became teenagers.
Another worry for grandparents is that their own poor health might affect their ability to provide care. In a study of 71 grandmothers in California raising grandchildren due to the parents’ involvement in crack cocaine, grandmothers worried about whether they could keep up the strenuous pace of caregiving (Minkler, Rose, & Price, 1992). These concerns were echoed in a study of 50 grandparents living in Florida (Bachay & Buzzi, 2012) who cared for their grandchildren due to family crises such as the parental generation’s mental illness, substance abuse, deployment, and death. Grandparents were concerned about how their advancing age would affect their ability to provide ongoing care for grandchildren and about the quality of care grandchildren would receive if the grandparent died. Relatedly, in a study of 74 extended family members who lived in New York City and cared for children due to their parents’ problems, one of the grandmothers worried about whether, if she should die, her grandson’s parents would be able to raise him with the values she had worked so hard to instill (Burnette, 1999).
Taken together, research studies on the worries of grandparents raising grandchildren are characterized by some critical limitations. One limitation is that existing research focuses predominantly on families in crisis. A second is that the vast majority of this research has been conducted in the West. The present research study expands on existing research by examining the worries of grandparents in Southeast Asia—Thai grandparents who are caring for their grandchildren mainly due to their parent’s migration for employment. In so doing, we contribute to an understanding of the “contextual uniqueness and globality of experiences” of grandparenting (Hayslip & Musil, 2017, p. 5).
Method
Study Description and Sample
Interviews with grandparents were conducted by researchers from the Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR) at Mahidol University in Thailand. Institutional review board approval was obtained from the two collaborating institutions: IPSR and the University of Michigan. Recruitment of grandparents took place in three regions of Thailand: Kanchanaburi, Khon Kaen, and Phitsanulok. These regions were chosen because they have a significant portion of adults who migrated within the country for employment (Jampaklay et al., 2012; National Statistical Office of Thailand, 2006). These regions have also been selected by other researchers in Thailand (Jampaklay et al., 2012) due to variability in their sociocultural and economic contexts.
Recruitment for this study was conducted through community health centers and through village headmen or women. Eligibility criteria were (a) grandparent aged 50 years or older, (b) grandparent living with at least one grandchild, (c) both parents of the grandchild had migrated outside of the district during the past 3 or more months and had not visited home during that time, and (d) no other adult children lived in the household. Three IPSR interviewers went to the homes of potential participants, described the study, determined eligibility, and obtained informed consent.
We conducted interviews with 48 grandparents (36 grandmothers and 12 grandfathers) who lived in 42 skipped-generation households. In households with two grandparents, we interviewed both spouses if possible. If not, we interviewed the grandparent who was available. The average age of the grandparents was 62.9 years. Within the 42 households, an average of 2.7 adult children had migrated. Grandparents lived with 1.9 grandchildren, on average, whose mean age was 8.7 years.
Interview Questions and Field Notes
Interviews were based on semistructured and open-ended questions. The open-ended questions focused on family dynamics within the intergenerational family (Bengtson & Roberts, 1981; Clarke, Preston, Raksin, & Bengtson, 1999; Katz & Lowenstein, 2010). We asked about the relationships between grandparents, their migrant children, and their grandchildren. In addition, we took field notes based on our observations of what transpired during each of the interviews and our impressions of the intergenerational family dynamics.
Grandparents’ discussions about their worries and concerns emerged in three different ways. One was in response to the interviewers’ direct questions on this topic. Such questions included, “Do you have any worries or concerns?” “Is anything worrying you about your children?” “What concerns do you have about raising the grandchildren?” The second was in response to the interviewers’ probes. For example, interviewers asked about how grandparents felt when their adult children left home and how caring for their grandchildren affected them. Such probes sometimes resulted in grandparents discussing their worries. Finally, there were several instances when grandparents began describing their worries and concerns spontaneously. In such cases, interviewers’ general questions about family dynamics (e.g., how the adult child decided to migrate, whether it was more difficult to raise an older grandchild or a younger grandchild) resulted in these unprompted descriptions about their worries.
Analysis of Interviews
The interviews with the grandparents were audio recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. The authors read a subset of the transcripts to identify the kinds of issues discussed during the interview. The American investigator (the first author) read the transcripts in English, while the Thai investigators (the second and third authors) read the Thai transcripts.
We used thematic analysis to identify and understand the worries of Thai grandparents. Thematic analysis is a process by which datasets can be searched to identify patterns or themes; it is used across different qualitative approaches (Braun & Clarke, 2006). We followed the analytic process recommended by Braun and Clarke (2006).
Repeated Reading of Data
After reading a subset of the transcripts, we developed a consensus about the issues that emerged. One key issue was related to decision making; that is, how families decided that the parental generation would migrate and that the grandparents would care for the grandchildren. A second issue was the family dynamics that occurred as a result of parental migration and grandparents raising grandchildren. A third was the reactions, both positive and negative, of the grandparents engaged in caregiving. Grandparents described numerous sources of pleasure and pride associated with raising their grandchildren; they also described their negative reactions, including worries and concerns about grandchildren, migrant children, and themselves.
Generating Initial Codes
The first author used NVivo, a software package, to identify and code the worries (e.g., worried about family relationships, worried about income).
Searching for Themes
The coded extracts relevant to different kinds of worries were examined and clustered into larger themes. For example, worries about the ability to pay for grandchildren’s education were combined with other money-related concerns (e.g., financial difficulties of migrant children and insufficient resources for food) resulting in one of the overarching themes: worries about finances.
Reviewing the Themes
These initial themes were reviewed by the second and third authors to check for clarity and ensure the translations from Thai to English were accurate and interpretations were valid.
Defining and Naming Themes
During this phase of the analysis, we compared our findings with those of other researchers who had conducted research on the worries of grandparents. This comparison assisted us in defining the worries of Thai grandparents and contrasting their worries with those of grandparents in the United States.
Producing Scholarly Report
The final step in the analytic process involved an identification of the case examples and direct quotes that would be used in the manuscript narrative. During this stage, we also returned to the theoretical literature that had been conducted on worrying to hypothesize about how culture may influence worry.
Findings
Through our thematic analysis of the grandparents’ transcripts, we sought to obtain an in-depth understanding of the kinds of worries experienced by Thai grandparents in skipped-generation households. Our analysis identified four areas of worry: family relationships, finances, risky behavior of grandchildren and their safety, and the future. Here, we discuss the components of each kind of worry, provide case examples from our study, and compare our findings with those from research conducted in the United States.
Worries About Family Relationships
Worries about the family extended to several different intergenerational relationships. Grandparents were concerned about an estrangement in their relationship with their migrant children as well as relationships between their migrant children and their grandchildren.
Estrangement Between Grandparents and Migrant Children
Some grandparents worried about their relationship with their adult children who had migrated and left their children behind. For example, a recently widowed grandmother, aged 63 years, talked about her emotionally distant relationship with her daughter. The grandmother had encouraged her daughter to migrate so that she could get a better education and a good job. After the daughter migrated, she became pregnant. The grandmother then offered to care for her child, who is now 9 years old, so her daughter could work. Currently, the daughter sends home minimal remittances and rarely visits. The grandmother was particularly hurt that when she visited, the daughter never spent the night. When the interviewer asked about the advantages of her daughter’s migration, the grandmother responded, “Not so good, I think. She never visits and so that makes me worry. I don’t see the benefit of her going away. For her, the benefit is not having to live here.” The grandmother worried that her daughter had become urbanized and had lost her commitment to maintaining supportive intergenerational family ties.
In another situation, a divorced 59-year-old grandmother worried about the conflictual relationship she had with her migrant son. The son was divorced and had left his two children, aged 8 and 11 years, in the care of their grandmother. The grandmother’s financial resources were limited, and the son rarely sent remittances. When he returned to the family home, he often drank and became argumentative. The grandmother worried about her relationship with her son and detested the conflict when he came home stating, “I’d rather live alone than to live with this annoyance.” When asked by the interviewer if her son respected her, the grandmother replied, “Yes, I think he loves me but then why doesn’t he send money to help me survive?” For this grandmother, concerns about her son’s unwillingness to provide financial support and his belligerence were sources of considerable worry and distress.
Estrangement Between Migrant Children and Grandchildren
For other grandparents, a source of worry was the poor relationships between their adult children and their grandchildren. For example, a divorced grandmother, aged 70 years, had two granddaughters (aged 8 and 11 years) for whom she was caring. Her migrant daughter sent remittances but not enough to make ends meet. She was proud of her two granddaughters who were well-behaved and smart. The grandmother observed that her granddaughters seemed happy to be living with her. However, she was concerned about the relationship between her granddaughters and their mother. The grandmother said, “When it’s school vacation, they don’t want to go.” In this instance, a worry for the grandmother was that her granddaughters’ connection to their own mother was tenuous.
Similar concerns were expressed by a 63-year-old grandmother who was separated from her husband. Over the years, the grandmother had cared for multiple generations of children, including her grandson, aged 22 years. This grandson had subsequently migrated, left his own son (aged 3 years) in his grandmother’s care, and regularly sent remittances home. The grandmother was now worried about the relationship between her great-grandson and his parents. In talking about her preferred living arrangement, the grandmother stated, “I want him [the great-grandson] to live with his parents so that they can love each other more and be more emotionally close. Right now they are in separate places. I’m afraid that their love won’t be strong.” A worry for this grandmother was that the physical separation between her young grandson and his migrant parents could lead to emotional distance.
In summary, our research found that Thai grandparents in skipped-generation households worried about the relationships between themselves and their adult children as well as their adult children and their grandchildren. Many of these worries are similar to those identified by research on grandparents caring for grandchildren in the United States. Different, however, are the intergenerational issues with which the grandparents are grappling. In the United States, grandparents are often raising grandchildren due to problems encountered by the parental generation, such as mental illness or addiction (Williamson et al., 2003). Such problems may lead to worries about whether adult children are capable of parenting their own children. As reported by Musil et al. (2008), grandmothers in Ohio worried about whether their adult children would lose their parental rights. While some of the Thai grandparents we interviewed worried about estrangement between their adult children and grandchildren, these concerns rarely led to questions about the adult children’s ability to parent their own children. This difference between grandparents in Thailand and the United States is likely related to the reasons they assume responsibility for their grandchildren. In the United States, the adult children were often experiencing a crisis and unable to parent. In Thailand, we found that some grandparents stepped in when adult children had problems (Ingersoll-Dayton, Punpuing, Tangchonlatip, & Yakas, 2017), but it was more likely they were raising grandchildren because their adult children had migrated for better economic opportunities.
Worries About Finances
Grandparents were also concerned about their migrant children’s ability to make money and send remittances home to support those left behind.
Financial Difficulties of Migrant Children
Though their children had migrated to find employment and improve the family’s economic well-being, migrant children often experienced financial difficulties. Their adult children’s situation then became a source of worry for the grandparents. To illustrate, a grandfather (aged 60 years) talked about how he and his wife (aged 55 years) were caring for two grandchildren, aged 7 and 9 years. The grandfather was concerned about his adult children’s financial situation and worried “ . . . that they might not be able to make it at work. That they might not be able to feed themselves.” In this situation, the grandfather worried about his migrant children’s job security and their ability to make ends meet.
In another instance, a 51-year-old married grandmother was caring for three grandchildren (aged 2, 8, and 10 years) who were the children of two migrant adult sons. The migrant sons sent remittances regularly and had bought their parents’ appliances (e.g., a washing machine). The grandmother said, “I worry about them not having enough money to feed themselves the way they’re sending me money. I want them to be able to save some.” Although she needed her migrant sons’ remittances to care for her grandchildren, the grandmother was also concerned about their ability to save for the future so that they could eventually return to live in the village.
Insufficient Financial Resources for Grandchildren and Grandparents
Sometimes, the worries of the grandparents focused on not having enough resources to provide food for themselves and their grandchildren. For example, a widowed grandmother, aged 72 years, was caring for her two grandsons (aged 9 and 13 years). They were the sons of a migrant daughter who rarely sent home remittances to cover household expenses. The grandmother picked lemongrass to earn money. She worried about whether her health and the weather conditions would impinge on her ability to support her grandsons. The grandmother described how these worries emerged even in her sleep, “When it rains heavily for many days, I cannot work for many days too. I think that, ‘it is raining; rice is running out, what should I do?’ I sleep thinking about this.” For this grandmother, raising her grandsons was a struggle and worries about having enough food were ever-present.
Worries about the ability to pay for food were also expressed by a widowed grandmother, aged 59 years. She was caring for a grandchild (aged 14 years) and four additional children (aged 4, 5, 5, and 9 years) of other migrants. She originally took on the care for these additional children because she anticipated getting remittances from their migrant parents, but the parents earned very little and only occasionally sent remittances. The grandmother was overwhelmed by caring for five children and talked about feeling constantly worried. When asked what worried her the most, the grandmother replied poignantly, “That we won’t have enough to eat.” The grandmother felt trapped by her caregiving responsibilities and abandoned by the migrant parents who sent minimal remittances.
Insufficient Resources for Grandchildren’s Education
Inadequate finances also made grandparents worry about their grandchildren’s education. One of the grandmothers, aged 62 years, cared for four grandchildren (aged 6, 11, 16, and 17 years); two each from a migrant son and daughter. Her husband had entered a Buddhist monastery and so she was solely responsible for raising the grandchildren. Both her daughter and her son were having trouble making ends meet and sent only limited remittances on an unpredictable basis. The grandmother’s eyes filled with tears several times during the interview as she talked about their lack of financial resources. She explained that raising her grandchildren was not difficult except that she did not have enough money to pay their school fees. Because her migrant children were not sending sufficient remittances, the grandmother worried that her grandchildren would not be able to graduate. The grandmother said, “I feel sorry for my grandchildren. . . . But they are doing well at school. And they have high aspirations, such as being a doctor. I wonder if they can make it that far.” This woman had numerous worries, but the most salient was her concern about having enough resources for her grandchildren’s education and future well-being.
Concerns about grandchildren’s education were shared by the previously-mentioned grandmother, aged 59 years, who clashed with her son when he was drinking. The son provided her with little money and the grandmother had many worries about the family situation. When the interviewer asked the grandmother to describe her biggest concern about her grandchildren, she was succinct: “Mostly about the finances, for school.” Her 8-year-old grandson was an excellent student, and he wanted to be a policemen. The grandmother was emphatic that the migrant parents “need to provide some financial help. I can’t do it myself.” A primary concern for this grandmother was whether her bright young grandson would be able to attain his aspirations given the family’s limited financial resources.
Taken together, our findings indicate that grandparents in skipped-generation families in Thailand have a number of financial worries. Many of these worries are shared by U.S. grandparents including concern about food, medical bills, and school activities (Musil et al, 2008; Musil & Standing, 2006). An important distinction between Thai and U.S. grandparents, however, concerns the meaning of this lack of financial resources. Because Thai grandparents in skipped-generation households are generally caring for their grandchildren so their adult children can migrate to find better employment, they tend to expect their adult children to send home remittances (Knodel et al., 2010). We found that when their adult children were unable or unwilling to send home remittances, Thai grandparents worried about their adult children’s well-being and/or their lack of commitment to the intergenerational family. Because U.S. grandparents are often stepping in because of problems experienced by the parental generation (Das & Zimmer, 2015), they may have fewer expectations that their adult children will provide financial help. Though both the U.S. and Thai grandparents experience financial worries, it is possible that the worries of Thai grandparents are exacerbated due to cultural expectations about remittances and the negative meaning they attribute to a lack of remittances from their migrant children. Their financial worries may contribute to feeling burdened by their caregiving responsibilities (Ingersoll-Dayton et al., 2017) when children fail to provide sufficient remittances. Such worries may also spill over into intergenerational tensions and conflict between grandparents and their migrant children (Tangchonlatip, Ingersoll-Dayton, & Punpuing, 2017) as well as between grandparents and the grandchildren for whom they are caring (Ingersoll-Dayton, Punpuing, Tangchonlatip, & Yakas, 2018b).
Worries About Grandchildren’s Risky Behavior and Safety
Grandparents described worries about their inability to ensure their grandchildren’s safety. Some grandparents were concerned that their grandchildren would be hit by a car. For example, a married grandmother, aged 53 years, was caring for two grandchildren (aged 2 and 4 years). She was experiencing considerable pain in her legs and worried about her ability to keep up with her grandchildren. She explained, “When they run around and I cannot catch them, I worry they will get hit by someone. There is more traffic around here these days.” This grandmother, like several of the grandparents we interviewed, voiced concerns about the impact of increased road traffic on safety. The grandmother worried that her physical limitations made her less able to protect her grandchildren from traffic-related accidents.
Another worry expressed by grandparents was that their grandchildren would be influenced by their peers and might participate in risky behavior. While this kind of worry was generally reserved for older grandchildren, some grandparents with younger grandchildren already anticipated future worries of this kind. For example, the married grandfather, aged 60 years, who worried about his migrant children’s lack of financial resources was also concerned about the safety of his two grandchildren, aged 7 and 9 years, for whom he and his wife were caring.
Yes, I worry that they might get into drugs and things like that, that they might mingle with the wrong group of friends. After we die there might not be anybody to look out for them. We can’t really catch up with them these days. They’re moving faster now with the motorbike. Who knows where the motorbike takes them these days?
This grandfather was concerned that, as his grandchildren grew up, it would be more difficult to oversee their safety by controlling their peer relationships and risk-taking behaviors.
Interestingly, cell phones were identified as a barrier to overseeing the safety of grandchildren. To illustrate, a married 67-year-old grandmother cared for her granddaughter, aged 15 years, who was the child of her migrant daughter. The grandmother talked about how raising a child was more difficult than in the past.
It’s different because everything is developed now. Nowadays, there are mobile phones so we can call each other. In the past, there weren’t any mobile phones. It was easy to raise kids because we could see them. Wherever they were going to go, they had to tell us. Nowadays, they call to tell us and we don’t know where they are.
In this case, the grandmother thought that raising her granddaughter was more difficult than raising her own children and that cell phones were one of the contributing factors. Her granddaughter’s cell phone made it harder to maintain adequate surveillance and ensure her safety.
In summary, Thai grandparents in skipped-generation households worry about the risky behavior and the safety of their grandchildren. Such worries have also been identified in research on grandparents caring for grandchildren in the United States. Musil et al. (2008) reported that a major worry for their Ohio grandmothers was whether their adolescent grandchildren would be “keeping the right company” and how much they would succumb to “external influence” (p. 104), These same kinds of worries were expressed by the Thai grandparents whom we interviewed. They observed that, in contrast to the past, it was becoming increasingly difficult to insure the safety of their grandchildren. One reason given by Thai grandparents for this difficulty was the volume of traffic on the roads and the fear that their grandchildren would be run over. The incidence of traffic injuries is very high in Thailand; children and young adults comprise a large proportion of traffic-related fatalities (Chadbunchachai, Suphanchaimaj, Settasatien, & Jinwong, 2012). Another factor was their grandchildren’s involvement in drug-taking and other risky behaviors. In one instance, a grandfather became so concerned about the negative effect of his grandson’s peer relationships that he sent him back to his migrant parents. This method of setting limits by reconfiguring the intergenerational household would likely be far more difficult for grandparents caring for grandchildren in the United States when the family is in crisis (Ingersoll-Dayton et al., 2018b). A third reason affecting grandparental worries about safety was grandchildren’s access to cell phones. This finding is important because previous research has found that cell phones can enhance family contact and closeness (Ingersoll-Dayton, Punpuing, Tangchonlatip, & Yakas, 2018a; Knodel et al, 2010). However, as noted by our Thai grandparents, cell phones can also provide a false sense of security because grandparents are not certain about their grandchildren’s location.
Worries About the Future
Grandparents were worried about their future as well as that of their migrant children and grandchildren.
Grandparents’ Future
Grandparents worried about their own well-being. For example, a married grandmother, aged 56 years, talked about how much she enjoyed caring for her 1-year-old grandson and her worry that his parents might want to have him live with them. When asked by the interviewer how much longer she expected to care for her grandson, the grandmother replied, “Not sure. I worry that his parents will want to put him in school in Chonburi, when [the grandson] is 3 years old. They said they wanted a chance to be close to their son too.” The interviewer asked whether she wanted her grandson to live with his parents, and the grandmother emphatically replied, “No. I want him here. He is someone to talk with.” In this situation, the grandmother was enjoying the companionship of her young grandson and worried that his migrant parents’ wish to have him return would deprive her of this close relationship.
The 59-year-old divorced grandmother who had a conflictual relationship with her son expressed similar worries. She was caring for the two children, aged 8 and 11 years, of her migrant son and his estranged wife. The interviewer asked, “So when you get older, do you expect to be dependent on your grandchildren?” The grandmother replied, “Yes, I think for the younger child. He won’t go far from me. He has empathy.” When the interviewer asked about the older child, the grandmother expressed reservations about their long-term closeness and explained, “He could too, but I expect him to go farther away. I am worried that he will go live with his mother and he will begin to forget about me and care less.” Here, the grandmother was particularly concerned about her future relationship with one of her grandsons. If he went to live with his mother, her close relationship with him might diminish, and she could lose his support and assistance.
Adult Migrant Children’s and Grandchildren’s Future
Another major concern for grandparents regarding the future was what would happen if they became sick or died. For grandparents whose migrant children visited infrequently and were uninvolved in the care of the grandchildren, there were worries about the future living arrangements of their grandchildren. For example, the 72-year-old widow, who picked lemongrass and cared for two grandsons (aged 9 and 13 years), stated, “Sometimes I think, ‘Who will live with my grandchildren if I die?’” In this case, the migrant daughter had virtually abandoned her sons to the care of their grandmother, and the connection between the grandmother and her migrant daughter was tenuous. As the grandmother became increasingly frail, one of her many worries was about the future care of her grandsons since it was unlikely that they could live with their mother.
Other grandparents worried about the economic well-being of the entire family if they should die. For example, a grandfather (aged 74 years) and grandmother (aged 72 years) who were living with three grandchildren (aged 9, 11, and 28 years) managed to provide good care to their grandchildren despite their own health problems. However, the grandfather was troubled about the future and eloquently described his worries: I’m concerned about my children and my grandchildren. I’m worried that they will experience hardship. We’re here and our children are over there. Right now there are no worries. . . . But if we are sick and can’t work, our children have to leave their job over there. They will experience difficulties. They will have no income and also have to look after us. Sometimes I think about living and dying. What will our life be like in the future? What will our children and grandchildren’s lives in the future be like? How will they live if we pass away?
Like this grandfather, other grandparents expressed concerns about the potentially negative impact of their own health on their ability to provide family support over time.
Grandparents’ concerns also focused on their grandchildren’s future job prospects. To illustrate, a grandfather (aged 61 years) and grandmother (aged 56 years) were caring for the 11-year-old child of a migrant son. The grandparents were currently in good health, but their worries focused on the grandson’s future opportunities. The grandfather said, “We just worry about our grandson . . . worried that he won’t finish school. What if we died? If he doesn’t graduate he will end up doing manual labor.” Grandparents like this one hoped that their grandchildren would have good job prospects; however, they worried about their ability to provide care for their grandchildren until they received an adequate education.
Another concern was about how the grandchildren would get along with their own parents. For example, the previously mentioned widowed grandmother, aged 63 years, who felt hurt by her migrant daughter who rarely visited, also worried about what would happen to her 9-year-old grandson if she should die. As the grandmother explained, “I am already quite old. I am more worried about dying before he finishes his schooling and can take care of himself. He might not get along with his parents if he had to go live with them.” For a few grandparents, like this one, worries about the future included how their grandchildren and their migrant children would get along without the grandparents. In such cases, grandparents were concerned their migrant children would not have the time and energy to care for the grandchildren.
Taken together, our interviews with Thai grandparents in skipped-generation families indicated they were worried about the future. Such worries have also been found among U.S. grandparents. Studies in the United States have highlighted grandparents’ concerns about how their own health will affect their ability to provide care for grandchildren over time (Bachay & Buzzi, 2012); the same worries were voiced by the Thai grandparents in our study. Similarly, both the Thai and U.S. grandparents worried about the future living arrangements of their grandchildren if they become unable to provide care for them.
Discussion
Grandparents who have primary caregiving responsibility for their grandchildren experience a wide variety of emotions. Caring for grandchildren can be not only enjoyable (Ingersoll-Dayton et al., 2018a) but also evokes considerable worry. The present study expands on previous research by focusing on grandparents’ worries in the context of migration and by broadening the perspective to a non-Western country. Our analyses of interviews with grandparents living in skipped-generation households in Thailand identified several kinds of worries. We highlight some of the key findings and their contributions to theorizing about the worry process. Furthermore, we describe the limitations of our study and suggest directions for future research on the worries of grandparents.
Findings from this study, in conjunction with those of Change and Hayter (2011), shed light on how issues of safety can negatively affect intergenerational family relationships. In one of the few other studies conducted on the worries of grandparents in skipped-generation families due to migration, Change and Hayter found that Taiwanese grandmothers were concerned that their migrant children would be critical of them if their grandchildren became sick, which we also found. Our study points to another potential source of intergenerational conflict: if grandparents are not able to ensure the safety of their grandchildren from traffic accidents, peer pressure, or drug use, they may come under criticism from their migrant children.
We also contribute to the small body of research that examines what is global versus unique about grandparenting (Hayslip & Musil, 2017). By comparing the worries of our Thai grandparents with those of grandparents in U.S.-based research, we identify some of the commonalities. One worry of grandparents caring for grandchildren, in both the United States and Thailand, focuses on intergenerational family relationships. Other shared worries include the lack of financial resources, the risky behavior and safety of their grandchildren, and the future. It appears there are a number of common worries experienced by grandparents in skipped-generation families.
While the kinds of worries are similar, the ways in which grandparents in skipped-generation households in Thailand and the United States deal with their worries may be quite different. For example, while grandparents in Thailand and the United States worried that their adult children might want to resume caring for their own children, their methods of dealing with this concern were markedly different. In the United States, some grandparents have turned to the legal system in an effort to obtain guardianship of their grandchildren (Letiecq, Bailey, & Porterfield, 2008; Musil et al, 2008). In contrast, involvement with the court system was not a strategy to retain grandchildren that emerged during our discussions with the Thai grandparents. This difference is most likely due to the contrasting reasons for why grandparents originally assumed responsibility for their grandchildren. In the United States, grandparents in skipped-generation families are often caring for grandchildren due to a family crisis which involves the adult child’s inability to parent. In Thailand, grandparents are generally caring for grandchildren as a strategy to enhance the financial well-being of the family. Even if they wanted to have their grandchildren live with them on a long-term basis, they would likely not turn to the legal system to obtain guardianship of their grandchildren because their children are potentially competent parents.
This study provides insights into how culture may affect the underlying mechanisms of worry. Wisocki (1994, p. 255) has identified “negatively-charged cognitions” as key components of the worry process. Similarly, Borkovec (1994, p. 7) has described the worry process as “a chain of thoughts and images, negatively affect-laden and relatively uncontrollable.” Our research suggests that cultural norms may play a moderating role in the process of worrying by either exacerbating or reducing the intensity of their worries. The impact of cultural norms on worries was most prominent when our Thai grandparents described how disturbed they felt when their expectations for remittances from their migrant children were not fulfilled. Their palpable distress was related, in part, to their inability to make ends meet. However, there was also a cultural component that likely contributed to the intensity of their worry. In Thailand, the sending of remittances from migrant children to their older parents is a norm that reflects respect and gratitude to parents for raising them (Osaki, 2003). When grandparents are caring for their grandchildren this norm is thought to be even stronger (Knodel et al., 2010).
We hypothesize that, when Thai grandparents’ expectations for remittances from migrant children are not fulfilled, their “negatively-charged cognitions” (Wisocki, 1994, p. 255) about insufficient financial resources are exacerbated. Specifically, in addition to feeling worried about whether they can provide for themselves and their grandchildren, Thai grandparents in skipped-generation households may feel devalued and even abandoned when their migrant children fail to send much-needed remittances. Ruminations about their adult children’s lack of respect and gratitude may have the effect of increasing the “negatively affect-laden” (Borkovec, 1994, p. 7) quality of grandparents’ “chain of thoughts and images.”
Our hypothesis contributes to theorizing about the worry process by identifying the key role of cultural norms. Based on cultural norms, individuals have expectations of others and ascribe different meanings to external conditions, such as receiving insufficient remittances from migrant children. The same external conditions might evoke the worries of grandparents in other cultures as well; however, the intensity of the worry will be influenced by the meaning ascribed to the external condition. This study adds to theorizing about the worry process by highlighting the moderating role of cultural expectations in exacerbating the negativity of worries which, in turn, may lead to feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, and depression.
While the present research has resulted in some important contributions, we acknowledge the study’s limitations. One limitation is that the topic of grandparents’ worries was not the original focus of this study; therefore, we asked only a few direct questions about their worries during interviews. Future research on grandparents caring for grandchildren should include a greater variety of questions about the kinds of worries grandparents experience and follow up with more probing questions. Another limitation was that this was a qualitative study using a small purposive sample; we are unable to identify the prevalence of different kinds of worries in the larger population. Future research with grandparents raising grandchildren should use a probability sample to address this issue. Finally, in this study our focus was on identifying the types of worries experienced by grandparents. Worries were sometimes paired with positive feelings resulting in ambivalence and possible tensions; for example, grandparents worrying about finances and enjoying their grandchildren’s companionship (Ingersoll-Dayton et al., 2018a). Further research is needed to examine how the worries of grandparents as well as their ambivalence about caregiving affects their mental health.
We found that the kinds of worries described by the Thai grandparents in this study seem quite similar to those of their counterparts in the United States. What is likely to be unique, however, is the impact of these worries and the ways in which grandparents deal with them. Our study suggests that grandparents in skipped-generation households in Thailand may be especially affected by worries about inadequate financial resources because of cultural expectations for remittances and the negative connotation of insufficient aid from their adult children. Additional cross-cultural research on grandparents raising grandchildren is needed to address whether these and other differences occur in other parts of the world.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
We want to express our appreciation to Kanchana Theinlai, Wannee Hutaphat, and Elizabeth Steward for their contributions to this study.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: “Skipped-Generation Households in Thailand Project” was funded by the University of Michigan (School of Social Work, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, and Thai Studies) as well as supported by the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University.
