![]() Kinship care licensing is a prerequisite for custodial grandparents to receive financial assistance (e.g., foster care payments) and other supporting services from the child welfare system compared with unlicensed grandparents (Child Welfare Information Gateway, CWIG, 2016), but the majority of grandparent kinship caregivers are unlicensed. Xu et al., 2021), and the pandemic has exacerbated financial hardship of these families. Similarly, one‐third or more kinship families live below the federal poverty line (Ehrle & Geen, 2002 Y. Mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, are predicted to increase under the COVID‐19 circumstance, particularly for those who have a history of mental health issues (Holmes et al., 2020). Prior to the pandemic, the prevalence of psychological distress among grandparent kinship caregivers was 41% (Y. Moreover, COVID‐19 has disproportionately affected low‐income and racial/ethnic minorities in the U.S., and racial/ethnic minorities are overrepresented among grandparent kinship caregivers (N. These grandparent kinship caregivers are extremely vulnerable in the face of the COVID‐19 pandemic due to high rates of poverty, job insecurity, chronic mental and physical health issues and social isolation (N. Custodial grandparents are defined as those who have assumed full responsibility for grandchildren in the same household (B. ![]() The majority of kinship caregivers are grandparents, and these grandparents are referred to as custodial grandparents (B. Kinship care is full‐time care of children who are separated from their parents by relatives and other fictive kin (The Child Welfare League of America, 1994). These policy measures have limited individuals' physical and social activities, which may exacerbate psychological distress among vulnerable populations, including grandparent kinship caregivers (Galea et al., 2020). The moderating effects of license status indicate that some interventions should be specifically implemented among licensed kinship caregivers, whereas parallel services should be provided to kinship caregivers regardless of their license status.ĬOVID‐19 and its related policy measures, such as keeping social distancing and sheltering in place, have caused a number of social disruptions in our day‐to‐day living (Galea et al., 2020). Results suggest that additional emergency funds and more tailored financial services should be provided to meet material needs, and interventions with a focus on resilience and social support are particularly needed. Kinship license status moderated the relationships of social support and resilience with psychological distress. Logistic regression results indicated that material hardship was associated with higher odds of experiencing psychological distress, whereas resilience and social support were associated with lower odds. We administered a cross‐sectional survey of grandparent kinship caregivers ( N = 362) in the United States. Kinship care licensing is a prerequisite to receiving financial assistance and other supporting services from the government. Guided by the Resilience Model of Family Stress, Adjustment, and Adaptation, this study examines relationships between material hardship, parenting stress, social support, resilience and psychological distress of grandparent kinship caregivers during the COVID‐19 pandemic, as well as the moderating role of kinship license status on these relationships. ![]() COVID‐19 and its related policy measures have increased the psychological distress of individuals, including grandparent kinship caregivers.
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