Abstract
Previous research has insufficiently investigated how grandparents in skipped-generation households (consisting only of grandparents and grandchildren) interpret and respond to children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical developmental needs. This article provides an overview of the prevalence of children raised in skipped-generation households and their developmental experiences and outcomes. It sheds light on the factors influencing parenting behavior and stress among grandparent caregivers.
Key Words
skipped-generation households, grandparent caregiving, child development, parenting behavior, parenting stress
I have spent nearly two decades researching and advocating on behalf of grandfamilies, also known as skipped-generation households (consisting only of grandparents and grandchildren), initially as a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow conducting qualitative research for my dissertation turned book (2023). However, over the years, I have worked with various nonprofit organizations that provide direct service to these families and kinship support groups that offer refuge. An underexamined aspect of these caregivers’ experience is their difficulty responding to their grandchildren's developmental needs.
As surrogate parents, the grandmothers in my study anticipated caring for their grandchildren as they had for their own children: changing diapers, preparing meals, helping with homework, and waking in the night to coax a toddler to the potty. But most grandmothers did not expect a secondary and more challenging set of childrearing demands, in particular, managing children’s physical and mental health challenges (including malnourishment) and the emotional difficulties they experienced as a result of being separated from their parent(s) or past experiences of trauma and child maltreatment.
Most grandmothers did not anticipate developmental delays (e.g., learning gaps and disabilities) on par with those experienced by their grandchildren. Most grandmothers had little, if any, experience with childrearing issues of this magnitude. Most grandmothers also lacked the resources they needed to adequately address these childrearing issues, including the legal authority to tap into the institutional support their grandchildren required to address their developmental needs.
Previous research on the parenting skills and practices of grandparents in skipped-generation households indicates that their parenting behaviors are contingent upon several interrelated factors, including financial resources, level of social support, grandparents’ physical and mental health, relationships with the child’s biological parents, and the circumstances under which grandparents assumed responsibility for grandchildren (Monserud & Elder, 2011; Smith et al., 2008; Washington et al., 2013).
Grandparents raising grandchildren report clinically significant parenting stress (Lee et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2020). Health-related limitations, psychological distress, and financial hardship have been found to increase their parenting stress (Hayslip et al., 2017). Furthermore, their parenting stress is shaped by having to adjust to the parenting role, ineffective parenting practices, and the psychosocial and behavioral difficulties many grandchildren raised by grandparents experience, including behavioral, emotional, and school-related problems (Hayslip et al., 2017; Pilkauskas & Dunifon, 2016; Xu et al., 2020).
Children raised by grandparents are more likely than children raised by other caregivers to have behavioral and emotional problems.
Overall, children raised by grandparents are more likely than those raised by biological parents to have problems in school, and to experience lower educational attainment, academic achievement, and socioemotional well-being (Monserud & Elder, 2011; Pilkauskas & Dunifon, 2016). They are also more likely than children raised by other caregivers to have behavioral and emotional problems (Pilkauskas & Dunifon, 2016; Smith et al., 2008), though one study found no significant differences (Solomon & Marx, 1995).
A study using nationally representative data to compare the physical and mental health of children in different kinds of families (e.g., two-parent, blended stepparent, single-parent) found that children being cared for by grandparents in skipped-generation households had the poorest health status of any group of children, including behavioral/conduct problems, depression, anxiety, and an emotional, developmental, or behavioral problems requiring treatment or counseling (Bramlett et al., 2017).
Recent research demonstrates that family setting/placement types (e.g., kinship care, foster care, or group home) influence child development (Bramlett et al., 2017; Washington et al., 2018) and outcomes later in life (Sacker et al., 2022). Although children in kinship care have worse developmental outcomes than children in the general population, they tend to fare better than children in nonrelative foster care, though not at accessing needed services (Bramlett et al., 2017). Children in kinship care report fewer mental health and behavioral problems and more educational competence than children in foster care (Dorval et al., 2020).
However, a study examining well-being among children in kinship care with varying levels of involvement with the child welfare system found that children involved with the system had worse health (e.g., mental and physical health conditions, receipt of mental healthcare, special healthcare needs) and academic outcomes than those outside the child welfare system (Bramlett et al., 2017).
Previous research has insufficiently investigated how grandparents in skipped-generation households interpret and respond to children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical developmental needs. Social development refers to children’s ability to create and sustain meaningful relationships with adults and other children. Emotional development refers to children’s ability to express, recognize, and manage their emotions (e.g., self-efficacy, self-control, etc.), as well as to respond appropriately to others’ emotions (e.g., develop empathy, accurately read and comprehend emotional states, etc.). Cognitive development covers thinking across the lifespan e.g., learning, problem-solving, creating, reasoning, conceptualizing, categorizing, remembering, planning, etc.). Physical development involves fine motor (small, precise) and gross (large) motor skills, as well as brain development.
Although children grow at their own pace, developmental milestones—skills associated with how they play, learn, speak, behave, and move—provide a general idea of expected maturational changes. Understanding how grandparents raising grandchildren in skipped-generation households make sense of and deal with children’s developmental needs is crucial for designing effective supports and services, especially given the number of children being raised by their grandparents.
In 2023, 71.1% of children in the United States lived with two parents, 20.9% with their mother only, 4.2% with their father only, and 3.8% with no parent (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023). However, more than 2.4 million children (3%) lived in kinship care/grandfamilies (down from 4% in 2021; Grandfamilies and Kinship Support Network, 2024).
‘Nearly 30% of U.S. children live with grandparents at some point.’
Recent research shows that these point-in-time estimates underestimate the number of U.S. children who live with their grandparents. Nearly 30% of U.S. children live with grandparents at some point. Approximately 5% of these children will live in skipped-generation households and 24.6% will live in three-generation households (Amorim et al., 2017). Though most grandparents raising their grandchildren are married (65.7%), women assume the bulk of caregiving responsibilities (63% versus 36.6% of men; Anderson et al., 2024).
The articles featured in this issue on BIPOC grandfamilies fill gaps in the literature by drawing on qualitative data I collected from more than 70 Black grandmothers raising their grandchildren in skipped-generation households. Between 2007 to 2011, I interviewed these caregivers and conducted ethnographic research at doctor’s visits, welfare offices, school and daycare center appointments, as well as caseworker meetings.
The average age of grandmothers in my study was 54, they were raising an average of 1.81 grandchildren for an average of 5.25 years, and they had an average of 3.36 children. Eighteen were married, 24 were divorced, 6 were in long-term partnerships, 4 were separated, 6 were widows, and the remainder were single. At the time of data collection, 20 of the women reported annual household incomes higher than $15,000—the rest were impoverished.
The federal poverty level (FPL) during the years of data collection for families of two, three, four, and eight were $13,690, $17,170, $20,650, and $34,570, respectively. Seventeen of the 20 women who reported income above the FPL had incomes of approximately 1.5 times the FPL, and 3 had annual household incomes of more than 2 times the FPL. Twenty-six of the women were working at the time of recruitment, 14 were retired, and the rest were unemployed (Pittman, 2023, p. 5).
While data collection for this study took place from 2007 to 2011, I’ve researched and advocated on behalf of this population for nearly 2 decades. This has included serving on the board of Innovative Solutions for Disadvantage and Disability in Atlanta, Georgia, during my tenure as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the sociology department at Georgia State University (see Pittman et al., 2016); serving on the Mayor’s Council on African American Elders (MCAAE) in Seattle, Washington (MCAAE advises government agencies and community organizations on policies, programs, and services benefitting older African Americans); and working with local kinship support groups and organizations, including the King County Kinship Collaboration Committee, which provides comprehensive and coordinated services, advocacy, and community education to support intergenerational kinship families.
My ongoing involvement with this population confirms the continued relevance of the findings in these articles about how grandparents raising grandchildren in skipped-generation households strategize to meet children’s developmental needs.
LaShawnDa Pittman, PhD, is an associate professor of Ethnic Studies and the Joff Hanauer Honors Professor of Western Civilization at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Photo credit: Shutterstock/Inside Creative House
References
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