Location, Location, Location: How Community Distress Shapes Physical and Mental Health Outcomes for Caregiving Grandparents

Background The health of caregiving grandparents is a critical area of research. Financial strain is a well-established predictor of health and a common issue for caregiving grandparents. Objective We sought to understand how community context influences this relationship between financial strain and health. Specifically, we examined two dimensions of community context: community distress and perceived access to key resources for caregiving. Methods Using a sample of caregiving grandparents ( N = 439), we first conducted Latent Class Analysis to identify distinct profiles of resource access. We then used moderated mediation analyses to test whether financial well-being mediated the relationship between community distress and health, and whether this indirect effect varied by resource access profile. Results We found the relation between community distress and health through financial well-being varies depending on the grandparents’ perceived resource access. This research points to the importance of community context in the lives of grandparent caregivers.