DECLINING HEALTH IN GRANDPARENT RAISING

Research Paper: Demographic

Declining Health in Grandparent Raising Grandchildren





Declining Health in Grandparent Raising Grandchildren

Introduction and Background

An often overlooked consequence of the public health epidemics of drug abuse, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and violence resides in their contribution to the growing number of American grandparents raising grandchildren. Between 1990 and 2000, close to a 44% increase occurred in the number of children living with grandparents or other relatives. By 2002, approximately 4 million children, or 4.1% of White, 6.5% of Hispanic, and 13.5% of African American children, were living with grandparents.6 The fastest growth in the decade, moreover, has been found in those "skipped generation" families in which neither of the children's biological parents was present. (Sweet J, Bumpass L, Call V. 2003)

Although more than 1 in 10 (10.9%) American grandparents report raising a grandchild at some point for at least 6 months, and usually for 3 or more years, the prevalence of grandparent caregiving is particularly high in inner cities, where health and social service providers have estimated that between 30% and 50% of children are in the care of grandparents. Both qualitative studiesand quantitative research using representative national or regional data' have suggested that caregiving grandparents are vulnerable to a host of problems, including depression, social isolation, and poverty. Research examining the physical health of grandparent caregivers, however, has been limited to date to studies of small, convenience samples in particular geographic areas. These studies have been useful in demonstrating poorer self-assessed health status, considerable comorbidity, delayed help seeking, and a frequent tendency to "play down" the severity of personal health problems among grandparents in the study samples. The lack of generalizability of findings, however, underscores the need for larger, representative studies of the relationship between physical health and serving as a primary caregiver ...