The goal of this R21 exploratory research grant is to pilot test and refine an adapted intervention that teaches personal and social resourcefulness skills to grandmothers raising grandchildren. The resourcefulness training (RT) intervention has strong theoretical grounding, and there is beginning empirical evidence for its effectiveness in reducing stress, minimizing depressive symptoms, and promoting optimal quality of life for populations other than grandmothers raising grandchildren. This study will provide data for determining the necessity, acceptability, feasibility, fidelity, safety, and effectiveness of two innovatively designed methods of RT within the context of a small randomized controlled trial with 100 grandmothers raising grandchildren. The same personal (self-help) and social (help-seeking) resourcefulness skills are taught within both RT methods; however, one method uses expressive writing (EW) for practicing the skills and the other uses verbal disclosure (VD). The effects of these two methods will be compared with EW and VD without RT and with an attention only control condition. Based on Resourcefulness Theory, outcomes on which the treatments will be compared include perceived stress, negative emotions, and depressive cognitions (immediately after the four week intervention period), personal and social resourcefulness (6 weeks post-intervention), and depressive symptoms and quality of life indicators (12 weeks post-intervention). Both quantitative and qualitative data will be used for the pilot testing and future refinement of the RT interventions.
Three specific aims will be addressed as follows.
The first aim i s to examine the effects of RT-EW and RT-VD in comparison with EW, VD, and the control condition on outcomes that are expected to be affected at data points specified by Resourcefulness Theory.
The second aim i s to examine whether the effects of the treatment conditions (RT-EW, RT-VD, EW, VD, and control) on the seven study outcomes are influenced by relevant contextual factors, including characteristics of the grandmother, her grandchild, and the caregiving situation. Finally, because the literature suggests that not all grandmothers are overwhelmed or stressed and previous studies suggest that 10% of the grandmothers may be highly resourceful at baseline and not need RT, the third aim is to analyze qualitative data from EW or VD on randomly selected highly resourceful grandmothers to provide additional information for refining the RT and designing alternative methods for enhancing the quality of life of grandmothers caring for grandchildren. Once established, such interventions will be useful in promoting optimal, healthy functioning among the growing population of grandmothers caring for grandchildren so that they can continue to provide adequate care for their grandchildren and avoid placement of the child in an institution or foster care. ? ? ?
| Zauszniewski, Jaclene A; Musil, Carol M; Burant, Christopher J et al. (2014) Resourcefulness training for grandmothers: preliminary evidence of effectiveness. Res Nurs Health 37:42-52 |
| Zauszniewski, Jaclene A; Musil, Carol M; Burant, Christopher J et al. (2014) Resourcefulness training for grandmothers raising grandchildren: establishing fidelity. West J Nurs Res 36:228-44 |
| Zauszniewski, Jaclene A; Musil, Carol M; Au, Tsay-yi A (2013) Resourcefulness training for grandmothers: feasibility and acceptability of two methods. Issues Ment Health Nurs 34:435-41 |
| Zauszniewski, Jaclene A; Au, Tsay-Yi; Musil, Carol M (2012) Resourcefulness training for grandmothers raising grandchildren: is there a need? Issues Ment Health Nurs 33:680-6 |
