In a recent study in Population Studiesresearchers investigated the role of grandfathers’ support in protecting mothers from depression.
Their results show that support from grandparents may be more important for single mothers, while the role of grandmothers is more important than that of grandfathers.
Study: Grandparental support and maternal depression: Do characteristics of grandparents matter more to divorcing mothers? Image credit: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com
Record
Mothers often bear a greater share of childcare responsibilities compared to fathers, especially among single parents due to various circumstances such as widowhood or separation. In many cases of parental separation, children tend to reside primarily with their mothers, even when custody is shared.
Divorced mothers may need the support of family members as they deal with the challenges associated with single parenthood.
Grandparents can be an important source of support for families with young children, particularly if they are younger, retired, healthy and live close to their children and grandchildren.
Having a strong support system is known to be protective against depression, but few studies have investigated the relationship between grandparental support and maternal depression.
Single mothers may be more likely to develop symptoms of depression and emotional stress than those who have a partner. Therefore, such research has implications for parental well-being, child care, and related social policies.
About the study
In this study, researchers investigated whether maternal depression differed based on paternal characteristics, whether these differences were greater for divorcing mothers compared to partners, and whether paternal characteristics lead to different trajectories in maternal depression when they break up.
Focusing on mothers of children under 12 years of age, the authors measured depression using antidepressant purchases as antidepressants, although this could underestimate the prevalence of mild depressive symptoms.
All mothers were born in Finland between 1945 and 1995. Mothers who were followed for at least three hours between 2000 and 2014 and whose children could be linked to at least one grandparent were included in the study.
The data set included information on three generations – children, biological parents, and maternal and paternal grandparents.
Mothers were classified as not separated if their union had not dissolved during the child’s 13u birthday. In contrast, divorced mothers lived with their children for a year after the parents separated. Maternal age, income, education, employment status, and area of residence were included as controls.
Grandparents’ characteristics were age, union stability, geographic proximity, and health. Younger age, stable unions, greater geographic proximity, and good health were beneficial and hypothesized to be associated with lower maternal depression.
These effects were also predicted to be greater for mothers who divorced compared to those who did not divorce and for grandmothers compared to grandfathers.
Foundings
Grandparents were under the age of 70 on average, and divorcing mothers were more likely than non-divorcing mothers to have parents who were still working.
Mothers who did not divorce were less likely to live near their parents but more likely to live near their in-laws. Divorcing mothers were more likely to have parents or in-laws who did not live together.
Mothers were more likely to use antidepressants if their children’s grandparents were older, in poor health or not working.
They were also more likely to have bought the drug if they did not live near their children’s grandparents or if their parents did not live together. All mothers were significantly more likely to use antidepressants if their parents were in poor health.
As predicted, these differences were more pronounced for mothers divorcing their partners, who were also significantly more likely to use antidepressants.
Maternal grandparents, especially the grandmother, had a particularly important role in reducing maternal depression.
Maternal psychotropic medication use showed similar trends to antidepressant use, suggesting that effects were robust across multiple mental health treatments.
conclusions
The findings show how multigenerational exchanges of support can have important effects on mental health.
Grandparents provide support and resources for their daughters as they raise their children, reducing mental stress and depression during this critical time.
These contributions are even more important in times of upheaval, such as a mother’s separation from their partner.
A limitation of the study is that it uses antidepressant and psychotropic medication use as a proxy for depression. However, this may underestimate the true prevalence of depression, as it may not capture less severe symptoms.
For children whose parents divorced, the data set did not include information on father involvement after separation. Intergenerational exchanges of support were also not directly measured.
Focusing only on Finland, the results of this study cannot be easily generalized to other populations. Future research may shed further light on these gaps.
