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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1121
igaa057.1121
Abstracts
Session 2943 (Poster)
Family and Cross-Generational Relationships
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Role Centrality and Shared Activities With Grandchildren: Effects on Grandparent Depression
Marello Madeline  Patrick Julie  
West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”349 349
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
Research shows that physical and mental health are closely linked (Ohrnberger, Fichera, & Sutton, 2017). Further, social role theory states that holding and enacting valued roles, such as grandparenting, can buffer the negative effects of health on depression (Reitzes & Mutran, 2004). Using data from 247 grandparents (Mean age = 66.5; range 42 to 90 years; 46.2% grandfathers), we examined the differences between 164 custodial and 83 traditional grandparents on whether grandparent role centrality and engagement with grandchildren altered the effects of physical health on depression. The multigroup moderated moderation model was significant (X2(DF=30, N = 247) = 1610.78, p < .001; R2 = .797). We examined whether the paths were moderated by custodial status. Among custodial grandparents, role centrality (β = -.482**) and shared activities (β = -.493***) were significant predictors of depressive symptomatology. Moreover, the interaction between physical health and activities (β = .488***) and between physical health and role centrality (β = .522**) also accounted for significant variance among custodial grandparents. Custodial grandparents in poorer health who valued the grandparent role and those in poorer health who engaged with their grandchildren experienced fewer depressive symptoms. No such patterns were observed for traditional grandparents. Although we had anticipated that the interaction between role centrality and engagement with grandchildren would predict depressive symptoms, the interaction did not reach significance. Results are discussed in terms of the need to examine the differences of family/social contexts in grandparent populations.