Controlled evaluation of support groups for grandparent caregivers of children with developmental disabilities and delays.

There have been growing reports of older women and men caring for their grandchildren and great grandchildren. Many of these grandparents are caring for children with developmental disabilities. To systematically examine the effectiveness of a support group intervention for such grandparents, we recruited 97 grandparents through three agencies in New York City and assigned them to treatment and wait list control conditions. Significant reductions in symptoms of depression and increases in sense of empowerment and caregiving mastery were found for the treatment group. Similar effects were found for the control subjects when they later received the intervention.