eprintid: 10205192 rev_number: 22 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/20/51/92 datestamp: 2025-03-13 13:57:21 lastmod: 2025-03-13 13:57:21 status_changed: 2025-03-13 13:57:21 type: thesis metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Swaffield, Sheena title: External battles and internal struggles: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lived experience of kinship grandmothers ispublished: unpub divisions: UCL divisions: B02 divisions: C07 divisions: D05 note: Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. abstract: Background: There is global recognition that grandparents taking on primary care of grandchildren is an increasing phenomenon. Whilst this has benefits, kinship carers also navigate myriad losses. Aims: To explore the literature as it pertains to different types of loss in three key roles and consider implications for support for these families and for society as a whole. Methods: PsycINFO and Ovid databases were used to identify 31 English language, peer reviewed papers from the past 30 years. Results: Feelings associated with grief and loss were found to be common across kinship family roles. Discussion: There are many gaps in existent research, particularly with regard to kinship children and birth parents, but also pertaining to grandfather-carers, and other minority groups. Acknowledging that grief is not necessarily defined by actual death, other losses and intergenerational trauma may be pertinent to kinship families and may need to be mourned as part of the process of adjustment. date: 2025-02-28 date_type: published oa_status: green full_text_type: other thesis_class: doctoral_open thesis_award: D.Psych language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 2364034 lyricists_name: Swaffield, Sheena lyricists_id: SMSSW76 actors_name: Swaffield, Sheena actors_id: SMSSW76 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public pagerange: 1-125 pages: 125 institution: UCL (University College London) department: Psychology and Language Sciences thesis_type: Doctoral citation: Swaffield, Sheena; (2025) External battles and internal struggles: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lived experience of kinship grandmothers. Doctoral thesis (D.Psych), UCL (University College London). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205192/9/Swaffield_10205192_thesis_id_removed.pdf