It has been an immense pleasure to work on this seminal issue of Generations about Grandparenthood, specifically as it relates to BIPOC grandparents raising grandchildren in skipped generation households.
Guest Editor Wendy Lustbader, MSW, is a Clinical Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington and a longtime member and Immediate Past Chair of the Generations Editorial Advisory Board, and Gaynell Simpson, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Social Work in the Human Services and Cultural Studies Department under the School of Liberal Arts at Georgia Gwinnett College. Both are passionate advocates of grandparents raising grandchildren and have worked extensively on the ground with these populations.
They’re also big fans of one another’s work. Lustbader has used Simpson’s “Social Support and Survival Strategies of Older African American Grandmother Caregivers” as a reading in her Family Healing class and mentioned, “What an honor it has been to work together with her to assemble this special issue.”
Simpson returned the favor, saying, “I was delighted when invited to serve as co-guest editor to this special edition with Wendy Lustbader … . I appreciate her mentorship and guidance as we worked to complete this special issue.”
‘They were waiting for their daughters to pull their lives together … so that the children could safely return to them.’
Lustbader first noticed grandparent caregivers as a social worker in the 1980s in subsidized elder housing projects in the Seattle area. “There I encountered grandmothers who swore me to secrecy as they told me they had one or two grandchildren living with them. They would usher the children out the back exit to get them to school in the morning, fearing eviction if discovered, and would stand in line at food banks to extend what they could provide on their meager Social Security income.”
“They were waiting for their daughters to pull their lives together—to sober up, to get rid of abusive partners, to become good enough parents—so that the children could safely return to them.”
“For decades, I followed the research and practice developments in this area as I gave trainings to Adult Protective Services workers across the country, raising awareness of grandparents who were protecting their grandchildren to the point of neglecting their own needs,” added Lustbader.
It was inner city Baltimore where Simpson had her first introduction to grandparent caregivers, in 1998, when she worked at Family Connections as a research assistant: “From my dissertation … I was able to publish several articles focused on their social supports, coping strategies and mental health. In addition, I presented at local and state agencies to help inform service providers about their challenges and resiliency strategies.”
Simpson moved on to rural counties in Missouri, engaging in qualitative research of grandmother caregivers and their service providers. “They faced living in impoverished communities, affected by drugs, loss of employment opportunities and a strain in community resources. Such poverty results in structural inequalities and creates barriers for caregivers,” she added.
Now she engages in state presentations for the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association to inform juvenile justice service providers of the unique challenges facing Black grandmother caregivers. Her work sheds light on the systemic challenges these grandmothers endure, including limited access to community resources and support services.
‘I recognized the importance of "it takes a village" to raise a child and I was fortunate to have this village of loving caregivers.’
In November 2014 Lustbader attended a presentation by a featured writer in this issue, Dr. LaShawnDa Pittman: “I was stunned by her clarity as she reported what she had learned through interviewing 50 low-income custodial Black grandmothers in the Chicago area. She described their survival strategies at an unparalleled level of detail and insight. A section of this special issue is devoted to publishing the voices of these grandmothers for the first time.”
In Spring 2017, Lustbader taught workshops to front-line child welfare workers on how to conduct intergenerational assessments with the families they served. The sessions were intended to equip these workers with ways to motivate the “middle generation” to address any of their own personal trauma and to engage in treatment for substance abuse and mental health concerns. Lustbader noted: “A key outcome of these training sessions reported in the evaluations was workers stating that they had gained awareness of the strengths and challenges of the grandparents who often play a central role in protecting these children behind the scenes.”
Simpson has a personal as well as professional motivation in her line of study, as she was cared for by her grandmother, grandfather, and extended family systems during difficult times.
“I recognized the importance of ‘it takes a village’ to raise a child and I was fortunate to have this village of loving caregivers. I am passionate about bringing attention to caregivers whose villages are hampered by structural inequalities. We can no longer assume that African American grandmother caregivers, especially in skip-generational households, have the availability of community resources and family members to assist in their caregiving role,” she said.
Simpson hopes this issue reflects the challenges and resilience of grandparent caregivers and their significant contributions to rearing children in our society, as well as reflecting the racial and ethnic diversity of grandparenting across cultures. Her grander aims are that “this issue informs policy and practice with a commitment to improve the support systems available to grandparent caregivers, ensuring they receive the necessary resources and recognition.”
She “would like to see qualitative and quantitative longitudinal studies focused on grandparent caregivers across cultures. My current interest in the field of grandparenting is to engage in a qualitative study focused on the academic success of college students who were reared by their grandparents. I aim to research the psychological and social development of college students raised by grandparents and gain insights into self-identity, resilience, and coping mechanisms for academic achievements.”
Lustbader urges readers to consider Bert Hayslip’s recommendations for future research and development of services in the final article: “Hayslip has given us the gift of summarizing the high points and take-aways of articles in this issue.”
Alison Biggar is ASA’s editorial director.
Photo credit: Shutterstock/SeventyFour
