Retrospective look at the perceived educational experience of now-adult individuals brought up partly by grandparents

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the lived experiences of now-adult individuals who used to partly live with their grandparents. The study mainly focuses on the academic effects of such experiences and touch upon the social and psychological effects of these experiences as well. Six individuals between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four participated in semi-structured interviews and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was adopted as the methodological approach.

Following data analysis, six main super-ordinate themes along with their sub-themes were elicited from the interview transcripts. The six superordinate themes include: Academic effects, The benefits of being partly cared for by grandparents, The negative effects of being partly cared for by grandparents, Psychological effects, Social effects and Future plans.

The main finding in relation to academic effects was that the higher the level of education the grandparent had, or the more skilled she or he is, the better the effect that was left on the grandchild. Also, a negative effect which most participants mentioned was that they had much less time to do their school related work. Minimal social and psychological effects were elicited during the interviews.