The Grandfamily Phenomenon: Grandparents Providing Intensive Care (Scoping Review)

Abstract

This article deals with the phenomenon of grandfamilies. It sets out to determine what the existing literature reports on the issue of grandparents in the position of surrogate parents, and to introduce the topic of grandparents as it has been examined in international sociological studies published in the past decade, thereby embedding the topic into the sociology of ageing and the sociology of the family. It also identifies key concepts and gaps in research. It employs the scoping review method, and the articles assessed in the scoping review were analysed according to their country of origin, research methods, and the concepts they employed. The articles' research questions, goals, and recommendations for further research were divided into six categories: general characteristics, intergenerational relations, health, culture and ethnicity, wellbeing, and support. The article concludes with a summary of the research that has been done on grandfamilies in the past ten years and with recommendations for future research in this area.