The influence of grandparent-parent coparenting conflict on grandparents’ depression: the mediating effect of sense of mastery and moderating effect of self-perceived valued elder

Subjects: Medicine, Pharmacy >> Preclinical Medicine submitted time 2022-09-06 Cooperative journals: 《中国全科医学》

孟慧琳, 郭菲, 陈祉妍

Abstract： Background In China, 80% of the grandparents are taking part in caring for grandchildren. The prior studies found that involvement in taking care of grandchildren may increase the risk of depression among grandparents, which would seriously harm their quality of life. Existing research showed that coparenting conflict, valued elder and sense of mastery are all influencing factors for depression. However, the underlying mechanism still requires further investigation. Objective To investigate the influence of grandparent-parent co-parenting conflict on grandparents’ depression, and to explore the mediating and moderating mechanisms that grandparent sense of mastery and self-perceived valued elder may play in it. Methods Total 626 grandparents were investigate with the grandparent-parent coparenting scale, mastery scale, grandparent meaning scale, the center for epidemiological studies-depression(CES-D). Results ①Depression (5.36±4.14) was found to be significantly positively correlated with grandparent-mother co-parenting conflict(9.87±3.08)(r=0.28,P<0.001), positively correlated with grandparent-father co-parenting conflict(7.34±3.25)(r=0.35,P<0.001), negatively correlated with the sense of mastery (12.61±5.48)(r=-0.25,P<0.001) and negatively correlated with self-perceived valued elder (84.13±8.58)(r=-0.21,P<0.001). ②The sense of mastery partially mediated the relationship between grandparent-mother co-parenting conflict and grandparents’ depression (the mediating effect was0.05,which was 17.24% of the total effects) , as well as partially mediated the relationship between grandparent-father co-parenting conflict and depression(the mediating effect was0.05,which was 13.89% of the total effects). Grandparent self-perceived valued elder moderated the relationship between grandparent-mother co-parenting conflict and depression (β=-0.06,P<0.05), and it also moderated the relationship between grandparent-father co-parenting conflict and depression (β=-0.07,P<0.01). The results of simple slope tests showed that among grandparents who felt less value as the elder, co-parenting conflict had a stronger influence on their depression than their counterparts who with relatively higher self-perceived value .Conclusion grandparents-parents co-parenting conflict is an important influencing factor for grandparent’s depression. In this association the sense of mastery plays a mediating role, while the self-perceived valued elder exerts a moderating effect. To promote the metal health among elders who take part in co-parenting, education and intervention protocols that aiming at reducing co-parenting conflicts and enhancing elder’s sense of mastery and meaning as grandparents can be included.

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