Associations of Grandparenting Dimensions/Styles with Mental Health in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

In recent decades, grandparents’ increased involvement in child-rearing around the world has accelerated research on grandparenting. However, findings have remained inconsistent, and no reviews have examined how grandparenting dimensions and styles affect child and adolescent mental health. In our systematic review and meta-analysis, we synthesized evidence on the relationship between dimensions and styles of grandparenting and children’s and adolescents’ mental health. In nine databases, we identified 3197 studies on the relationship between dimensions and styles of grandparenting and children’s and adolescents’ mental health, 20 of which we ultimately reviewed. To better integrate the results, we performed a meta-analysis of studies addressing the same mental health outcomes (i.e., depression, anxiety, and internalizing symptoms). Moreover, to synthesize evidence from the studies, we conducted both random- and common-effects meta-analyses. The reviewed studies involved 11,434 children overall. Among our findings, the associations between positive dimensions and styles of grandparenting and children’s and adolescents’ depression and anxiety were moderately significant (depression: r = −0.33; anxiety: r = −0.12), as were the correlations between negative dimensions and styles and all three mental health outcomes (depression: r = 0.15; anxiety: r = 0.15; internalizing symptoms: r = 0.25). In general, positive dimensions and styles of grandparenting are negatively associated with mental health conditions, whereas negative ones are positively associated. In this article, we discuss those and other findings and propose directions for future studies.

Keywords

• grandparenting
• mental health
• children
• adolescent
• systematic review
• meta-analysis