Psychological adjustment and classification of women caring for grandchildren and/or elderly relatives according to their intelligence

Abstract

The aging of the population and the current culture of caregiving have led to an increase in the number of grandmothers who care for their grandchildren, their ancestors, or even both generations simultaneously. In order to know more deeply the psychological consequences of this phenomenon, 115 structured interviews were conducted with women from southwestern Spain who were grandmothers and, at the same time, who were daughters or daughters-in-law from a previous generation. A two-stage cluster analysis was performed to classify these women according to their emotional intelligence. Women have been distributed almost 50% in two clearly differentiated groups. The first group, characterized by higher flexibility, stress tolerance and impulse control, brings together a greater proportion of women living in urban environments and with a higher level of studies, and shows significantly higher levels of psychological health and happiness. In contrast, the second group of women, characterized by lower emotional intelligence, scores significantly higher in stress and anxiety. This study highlights the importance of including the promotion of these emotional intelligence skills in prevention and health promotion programs in this collective of women.