| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺中教育大學 === 幼兒教育學系碩士班 === 98 === The purposes of this study were to listen to grandparents’ experiences and to investigate their difficulties and needs in rearing their young grandchildren. A qualitative research approach was adopted to understand and interpret grandparents’ difficulties and needs in rearing young grandchildren. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 6 grandparents aged between 58 and 75, whose grandchildren were studying in a kindergarten in Taichung City which the researcher was teaching at. The reasons that the six grandparents interviewed took the responsibility of rearing young grandchildren mainly because their grandchildren’s parents were separated, their fathers were dead, their mothers were sick or both of their parents had to work. The interview records were added with notations and clarified, and later transcribed into text data. The text data were analyzed using “thematic analysis method” to present grandparents’ difficulties and needs in rearing their young grandchildren.
Four common themes of grandparents’ difficulties and needs in rearing their young grandchildren were induced as follows:
1. An overture of grandparents’ love for grandchildren—an undissolvable bond:A grandfamily was formed when any one of the parents was dead or sick, parents divorced or both parents had to work. In a grandfamily, the grandparents had no choice but to shoulder the responsibility of rearing their young grandchildren with no complaints. They not only helped rear young grandchildren but also enjoyed being with them.
2. A waltz of life created by both the grandparents and grandchildren—highs and lows in life:
After grandparents had become the main rearer of their young grandchildren, they would experience both the bitterness and sweetness of child-rearing. In addition to the love between them and their young grandchildren, the main support for them came from their children’s respects and their own expectations of the young grandchildren’s growth, self-realization, and their children’s happiness in marriage.
3. A minuet danced by the grandparents and grandchildren—tests and responsibilities in life:
The grandparents could not resist their young grandchildren’s strong love for their parents. They needed to take pains to provide guidance to their young grandchildren, found a proper way of rearing them, and posited their roles as a rearer.
4. A roundelay of life interwoven by the grandparents and grandchildren:“Expecting sons to be dragons and daughters to be phoenixes” (expecting great things from children) is a common wish of all parents. In grandfamilies, grandparents gave great love and care to their grandchildren to make up the incapability or insufficiency of their children and also wished both their children and grandchildren a better future. Based on the above research findings, the researcher proposed some suggestions for grandparents and their family members, social workers, and kindergarten teachers, in hope of solving and satisfying grandparents’ difficulties and needs in rearing their young grandchildren.
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