The Role of Caregiver Burden in Understanding African American Custodial Grandmothers

African American grandmothers who parent their grandchildren often experience burden and altered health related to these responsibilities. However, little is known about how such burden reliably predicts physical and mental health, needs for information about services, needs for service and service use. Recruited from churches and community centers, 93 African American grandmothers who provided care for their grandchildren participated in this study. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to ascertain relationships between variables. Findings suggested that burden predicted needs for information about services, needs for service, service use, and physical health, but not mental health. In order to better understand grandmother caregivers' well-being and orientation to services, the present study suggests that the role of burden be centralized as a predictor of many parameters pertinent to grandparents raising their grandchildren.