Relationship between grandparenting stress and emotional well‐being: The moderating role of benefit finding

Abstract Objective To explore the moderating role of benefit‐finding in the relationship between grandparenting stress and emotional well‐being. Background Grandparents face multiple pressures in the process of assisting with childcare, which significantly affects their mental health. It is an important task for family researchers to develop effective strategies aimed at improving the mental health of grandparents involved in grandchild care. Methods A total of 244 grandparents completed the Grandparenting Stress Questionnaire, the Relatedness Benefit Finding Questionnaire in Grandparenting, the Reproduction‐Immortality Benefit‐Finding Questionnaire in Grandparenting, and the Emotional Experience of Well‐Being Questionnaire. Results Grandparenting stress showed significant interaction effects with both relatedness benefit finding and reproduction‐immortality benefit finding. The moderating effect size of reproduction‐immortality benefit finding (Δ R 2 = 0.026) was greater than that of relatedness benefit finding (Δ R 2 = 0.012). Elevated levels of benefit finding contribute to enhancing grandparents' positive emotions and mitigating negative ones, thereby enabling their emotional well‐being to sustain a relatively high level even in high‐stress situations. Conclusion Both relatedness and reproduction‐immortality benefits finding in grandparenting moderated the effect of grandparenting stress on emotional well‐being. Implications Grandparents can enhance their emotional well‐being by finding the benefits of caring for their grandchildren.