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This study explores how grandchild care in conjunction with grandparents' retirement affects depressive symptoms, using data from the Health and Retirement Survey. The findings demonstrate that retirement moderates the influence of grandchild care obligations on well-being, measured by depressive symptoms. For retired men, freedom from grandchild care obligations is associated with heightened well-being. Among women, continued employment seems to protect against potential negative effects of extensive grandchild care obligations on well-being. The results for men seem most in line with the argument that family care obligations spoil retirement, whereas the results for women suggest a scenario that is most compatible with the role enhancement thesis.

Prior research on grandparent caregivers has focused on stress, depression, and other negative outcomes. This paper describes research on factors that are associated with grandparents' positive well-being. In particular, it investigated the extent to which the perception of grandparental stress and grandparents' resources are associated with grandparents' well-being, alter controlling for sociodemographic and health factors. A sample of 129 grandparents had individual interviews. Using a hierarchical block multiple regression analysis, the authors found that a low perception of stress related to caring for grandchildren and resources were responsible for a high level of wellbeing. The findings of this study suggest that social workers can best help grandparent caregivers by lowering their perception of stress and enhancing their informal supports and community resources. This can be incorporated into supportive, strengths-based individual or family counseling. KEYWORDS. Caregiving, caregiver, grandparent, grandchildren, kinship care, well-being, positive, ''successful aging,' 'positive aging,' aging