Grandparents raising grandchildren: challenges and outcomes

Grandparents as Caregivers

An Introduction to the Skipped Generation

Families in the late 20th and early 20th century are not the same as they were prior to World War II and even up into the 1960s. The idea of marriage is both a social and religious contract that is sanctioned by society as a valid contract and event. Depending on the particular society and culture, marriage combines the institution of family with intimate and sexual relationships, and the idea of the unit growing from this union. Traditionally, marriage has been with a man and a woman with the potential of having children, thus creating kinship ties to extended families. Historically, this was also an economic unit; families joined forces with land or property, or even joined nations together. Over the past few decades, though, marriage has weakened as the prime social institution of family life. There are a number of trends contributing to this: Americans are delaying marriage, living together prior to marriage or consistently, marrying at a much older age, or not at all, and even raising children in divergent environments. For a number of reasons, not the least the fact that a number of children do not have two parents at home, grandparents are often now being asked to raise a new set of children -- their grandchildren. This paper focuses on the issue of grandparents as primary caregivers within modern society through the lens of a socio-cultural and scholarly paradigm.

It is a clear trend that grandparent headed households are increasing in the United States, and even in the developed world. Changes in the socioeconomic status of millions of people have engendered the increase in grandparents raising children -- a few decades ago, it was a rare thing, and now it is quite common. The crises that create "grandfamilies" are myriad -- substance abuse, incarceration, violence, divorce, disease and even suicide seems to be getting more pronounced, particularly in economically challenged areas. Many see the grandparents who are raising grand and great-grandchildren as some of the nation's forgotten heroes of a new generation and their contribution will be seminal in the next generation of leaders.

Ironically, grandparents are raising children in a world that was quite different from the world in which they raised their own children. At that time there was no Internet, no Smartphones, no social networks and no Facebook. Child safety meant not talking to strangers on the street or answering the door if you were alone. Now, the world is faster, information is everywhere, and children are not always allowed to be children -- at least if they watch television or movies. What has not changed, however, are the emotional feelings and child-rearing dilemmas grandparents feel when they suddenly become parents again. Despite the media using terms like "silent saviors" or "recycled parents," or even referring to the aging parents as "the sandwich generation," we must realize that these people have expected, at this time in their lives, to be traveling, enjoying hobbies, and experiencing the world in ways they could not when they had children at home. Instead, many on fixed incomes, they are now back into a routine of diapers, PTA, school counselling and an entire new issue of homework and technology. Indeed, while the lower economic groups are hit hardest, grandparents hit with the dilemma of re-raising children cross-economic, social, religious and ethnic lines. Despite these challenges, a paradigm emerges that often becomes a model of child rearing. Grandparents, having been through many of the typical childhood issues before, are calmer, more prepared for emergencies, understand psychological tools that deal with the maturation process, and are often wise to the ways of children and adolescents (Strom & Strom, 2011).

The irony of grandparents raising children is also one of demographics. For some time, demographers have expressed concern that the first part of the 21st century would face a number of potential challenges due to an aging population. This becomes a slight problem from a medical and socio-economic viewpoint. First, if there are almost 6 million grandparents in the United State participating in child care (the estimate is 1 in 10), what happens when those grandparents become ill or too aged to continue adequate care? As one ages, even in this modern world of medicine, there are issues that come up -- cardiac, renal, osteo and even mental. If one begins to "re-raise" a child at 60, one is into their 70s during adolescence. Given the cost of both child-care and medical care for both children and adults, this also taxes the caregiver in more than one way, contributing to stress and potential negative consequences. In addition, if something happens to the grandparents prior to the child graduating from High School, there are few safety nets in place that will allow for a positive adjustment for that child (Williams, 2011).

One of the major groups most affected by this trend in grandfamilies is that of African-Americans. Statistics have shown that African-Americans, as of the 2012 census update, comprise about 44 million, up almost 2% from 2010. If we extrapolate data as in 1 in 10 for the ratio of grandfamilies, we then have 4.4 million African-American grandparents -- typically African-American grandmothers, raising children. Many of these Black grandmothers, however, are at the lower end of the socio-economic scale, and yet despite the strain of parenting grandchildren prefer to enter into a caregiver roles rather than allowing their grandchildren to enter into the foster care system. This has been a cultural role, however, over the past few centuries, yet more as kinkeepers and respected members of the family -- in fact anchors of the clan, but not expected to raise the children on their own. Certainly, one can envision the fiscal and legal issues surrounding care giving full time for younger African-American children, particularly in large urban areas in which the pressures mount regarding gang activity, substance abuse, crime and educational dropouts are endemic. One research study, however, identified five interventions that can be more helpful to the grandparent: 1) Greater access to healthcare information to increase awareness of services for both the child and the grandparent; 2) A more aggressive role from social, financial and legal resources from all levels of the government, particularly targeted at grandfamilies; 3) Networking of spiritual and religious resources; help from parishes and religious-based organizations; 4) More access to mental and emotional health professionals and support groups to help handle the stresses of re-parenting; 5) Ways to mitigate 24/7 care by providing utilized youth lock ins, outings, or other activities that will provide breaks in child care -- something both parents and grandparents need. This paradigm finds that it is critical that social workers, religious groups and healthcare services band together to provide a greater service mentality for the grandfamily (Collins, 2011).