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

BackgroundThe 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.ObjectiveWe 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.MethodsUsing 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.ResultsWe 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.