This unique book examines variability among custodial grandparent caregivers. It focuses on diversity among grandparent-headed families in domestic and international settings, with over 35 contributors exploring the many factors that contribute to such diversity. It also examines diversity across individual differences, especially those of gender and age, ethnicity and race, and culture. An awareness of their uniqueness is essential to the process of understanding the demands of custodial grandparents' new roles, and in providing appropriate services to them. Whatever the reason, most grandparents raising grandchildren never anticipated that they would parent again. For most, this new role causes significant upheaval in their lives. Problems contributing to stress may include having to give up or reduce hours of work, early retirement, and providing financial and emotional support for their grandchildren. This book is a valuable resource for practitioners and extension educators who work with grandparents raising their grandchildren. It provides a wealth of information and a basis on which national and state-run services can evaluate their current policies and devise funds, services, and programs that will help this growing population successfully raise their grandchildren.

The 18 papers of this collection on grandparents who raise their grandchildren are grouped into the broad categories of theory, practical applications, and empirical studies. Individual topics include case studies, intervention research, support groups, cross-discipline approaches to establishing caregiving guidelines, the psychological adaptation of grandchildren, building parenting skills, and grandparent caregivers of children with developmental disabilities. The contributors teach psychology, social work, child development, and gerontology at universities in the US.

This landmark resource investigates and documents current and predicted trends regarding the experiences of grandparents in the United States and abroad. Edited by two of the foremost scholars and educators on the health and wellbeing of grandparents raising their grandchildren, it reflects the enormous changes in the roles of grandparents during the last several decades and explores the historical and social context in which these changes have occurred. With contributions from internationally recognized scholars in family studies, gerontology, human development, psychology, social work, and sociology, this interdisciplinary resource examines the roles of grandparents from multiple perspectives including the cultural/historical, developmental, ecological, and cross cultural, as well as from a clinical/family systems perspective. It reflects the redefinition of the role of grandparents over the past 20 years, mirroring societal shifts in greater longevity and life expectancy, and a greater awareness that grandparenting cannot be viewed in a sociocultural vacuum. Scholars, clinicians, and educators of adult development and aging, will find a wealth of critical information in their fields of endeavor, as will policy makers and clinical practitioners. Print version of the book includes free, searchable, digital access to entire contents of the book! Key Features: Addresses new dimensions of grandparenting such as sexual orientation, health of grandparents, resilience and resourcefulness, step-grandparents, and great-grandparenting Delivers groundbreaking research on the health and wellbeing of grandparents caring for their grandchildren Covers decreasing health disparities, health care coverage, and stipends for grandparents who are not certified kinship providers Examines grief, clinical interventions, grandparent-grandchild and intergenerational relationships, divorce, and the prevalence of multigenerational households Discusses the expanding role of grandfathers, the impact of HIV-AIDS and drug addiction on grandparents, and the global nature of grandparenting Includes clinical case study approaches to helping grandparents

Grandparenting in the 21st century is at the heart of profound family and societal changes. It is of increasing social and economic significance yet many dimensions of grandparenting are still poorly understood. Contemporary Grandparenting is the first book to take a sociological approach to grandparenting across diverse country contexts and combines new theorising with up-to-date empirical findings to document the changing nature of grandparenting across global contexts. In this highly original book, leading contributors analyse how grandparenting differs according to the nature of the welfare state and the cultural context, how family breakdown influences grandparenting, and explore men's changing roles as grandfathers. Grandparents today face conflicting norms and expectations about their roles, but act with agency to forge new identities within the context of societal and cultural constraints. Contemporary Grandparenting illuminates key issues relevant to students and researchers from sociology and social policy, including in the fields of family, childhood, ageing and gender studies.

This volume explores the ethics of making or expanding families through adoption or technologically assisted reproduction. For many people, these methods are separate and distinct: they can choose either adoption or assisted reproduction. But for others, these options blend together. For example, in some jurisdictions, the path of assisted reproduction for same-sex couples is complicated by the need for the partner who is not genetically related to the resulting child to adopt this child if she wants to become the child's legal parent. The essays in this volume critically examine moral choices to pursue adoption, assisted reproduction, or both, and highlight the social norms that can distort decision-making. Among these norms are those that favour people having biologically related children ('bionormativity') or that privilege a traditional understanding of family as a heterosexual unit with one or more children where both parents are the genetic, biological, legal, and social parents of these children. As a whole, the book looks at how adoption and assisted reproduction are morally distinct from one another, but also emphasizes how the two are morally similar. Choosing one, the other, or both of these approaches to family-making can be complex in some respects, but ought to be simple in others, provided that one's main goal is to become a parent.

The first—and only—source to integrate the multiple disciplines and professions exploring the many ways people interact with the natural and designed environments in which we live. Comprising more than 250 informative entries, The Encyclopedia of Human Ecology examines the interdisciplinary and complex topic of human ecology. Knowledge gathered from disciplines that study individuals and groups is blended with information about the environment from the fields of family science, geography, anthropology, urban planning, and environmental science. At the same time, professions intended to enhance individual and family life—marriage and family therapy, clinical psychology, social work, dietetic and other health professions—are represented alongside those concerned with the preservation, conservation, and management of the environment and its resources. How rampant are eating disorders among our youth? Are AIDS educational programs effective? What problems do adolescents transitioning into adulthood encounter? Here, four leading scholars in the field have assembled a team of top-tier psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and other experts to explore these and hundreds of other timely issues.

Families are undergoing dramatic changes in our society. Our tradi tional views are being challenged by new family arrangements. These new family arrangements are forcing redefinitions of what consti tutes a family and raising significant issues regarding the potential developmental consequences for children in these families, if such exist. Moreover, the ramifications of redefined families and their bear ing on children's development extend into the legal, political, and societal arenas. This book focuses on the relationships between di verse family arrangements and children's development, as well as on legal and social implications. Our interest in this area emanates from our experience in directing the Fullerton Longitudinal Study. In the course of this investigation, we observed families undergoing transformation, most commonly in maternal employment and marital status. Our initial research on the role of maternal employment in children's development provided the scientific foundation for our interest. Just as we feel that maternal employment and dual-earner families should be comprehensively re searched regarding their relationships to children's development, we also believe that other contemporary family arrangements should receive extensive attention in the developmental literature. Hence, the idea for this book emerged.

Examine the changing structure of the family as America’s population ages! As the United States’ economy evolves and manufacturing jobs disappear, the prospect of each generation experiencing a standard of living that exceeds that of their parents’ generation also disappears. Challenges of Aging on U.S. Families: Policy and Practice Implications explores this trend, presenting the latest original research on the changing roles of caregivers along with the economic and emotional effects on the family unit. Respected authorities discuss in detail long-term care and the standard of living of families, with a focus on the effects of changing family structures on families themselves and society at large. The coming boom in the population of the aging will impact families at several levels. Challenges of Aging on U.S. Families thoroughly examines the economic demands of aging on families, then focuses on different roles elderly family members are likely to play over the next several decades. Some of the issues explored include “skipped generation parenting” where children are raised in grandparent homes where neither parent is present, the impending economic impact of caregiving on families, the stress on families with fewer siblings to share the caregiving tasks, and the tendency for family members to live in different parts of the country and subsequently become unable to offer caregiver support. Detailed tables provide clarity of thought while comprehensive bibliographies offer further opportunity for study. Challenges of Aging on U.S. Families discusses: the economics of aging the implications of aging economics and emotional stress on the future of families the coming labor shortage of caregivers family-based intervention in residential long-term care shifting relationships between parents and their children caregivers self-esteem issues involving daughter caregivers paying family caregivers—as public policy a proposed policy of requiring adult children to care for their aging parents inheritance and intergenerational transmission of parental care the inherent psychological stress within skipped generation families Challenges of Aging on U.S. Families: Policy and Practice Implications is an eye-opening text for researchers, health professionals, social workers, counselors, caregivers, educators, and students.

The study of grandparents raising grandchildren, now almost two decades old, has tended to have a negative bias, emphasizing the difficulties such people face and the negative impact that grandparent caregiving has on them physically, socially, and emotionally. This edited book seeks to reverse this trend by taking a positive approach to understanding grandparent caregivers, focusing on their resilience and resourcefulness. This method reflects a strengths-based approach and the importance of benefit-finding and positive coping. Chapters feature information from both qualitative and quantitative studies and are written by a diverse range of professionals, such as counselors, psychologists, geriatric social workers, and nurse practitioners, to provide multidisciplinary persepctives for practitioners working with grandparent caregivers. Part one discusses the positive qualities that custodial grandparents possess - resilience, resourcefulness, and benefit finding. The second part considers the sociocultural aspects of resilience and resourcefulness in grandparent caregivers. Finally, part three presents strengths-based interventions for working with custodial grandparents. Practitioners will find this to be a valuable resource in their work and the field as a whole, stimulating positive changes in attitudes toward and practices with grandparent caregivers.

Childhood disabilities, particularly cognitive disabilities, are on the rise yet social programs and services to help US families respond to disabilities are not. Many families turn to grandparents for assistance juggling work, family responsibilities, and specialized therapies. This book is based on in-depth interviews with grandparents who are providing at least some care to grandchildren with disabilities. The analyses will help to better understand (1) under what conditions grandparents provide care and support, (2) what types and intensities of care and support grandparents provide, and (3) the impact of that care and support on grandparents’ social, emotional, physical, and financial wellbeing. In this fascinating and provocative book, Madonna Harrington Meyer and Ynesse Abdul-Malak take readers on a deep dive into the complex lives of grandparents who care for their disabled grandchildren. In Grandparenting Children with Disabilities, their interviews reveal the joy, meaning, and purpose grandparents find in caregiving, the challenges and frustrations they encounter, and the many ways they compromise their own health and well-being for the sake of their grandchildren. Drawing from theories of cumulative inequality and from their deep knowledge of the US policy context, the authors lay bare the systemic failures that leave families of children with disabilities without adequate support and that place the most vulnerable among them at grave physical, emotional, and financial risk... Jane McLeod, Provost Professor, Indiana University Grandparents in the U.S. already take on far more parenting responsibilities as compared to their peers in other countries. Grandparenting Children with Disabilities demonstrates that the intensity of these responsibilities is compounded for those whose grandchildren have disabilities given limited policy supports and a society still largely unaccommodating to those with disabilities. This book beautifully navigates the tension between the love these grandparents have for their grandchildren and the challenges they face caring for them. Pamela Herd, Professor, Georgetown University Grandparenting Children with Disabilities offers important insights about the lived experience of older adults who care for and care about their grandchildren...The authors skillfully integrate the stories they tell with consideration of macro social structural influences and life course perspectives... I recommend it highly! Eva Kahana, Distinguished University Professor, Case Western Reserve