In an age when mounting economic and social pressures make it increasingly easier to split a family than to sustain one, the authors alert us to a forgotten source of family strength, the power of grandparents to enrich the lives as a whole.

In this book Kornhaber and Woodward explore the vital connections which link generations to each other and expose a new social contract that destroys the emotional bonds between grandparents and grandchildren., This is the first book which reviews, in a careful ethnographic manner, the relationship of grandchildren to grandparents and the place of love at one end and abandonment at the other by grandparents. The authors probe the deep, unexplored emotional histories of hundreds of grandparents; how they feel about themselves, their grandchildren, and their loss of function within today's nuclear family., With sharp increases in the number of broken families and working mothers, grandparents are more vital than ever and also more available than ever. This basic research document shows how grandparents recover their natural role as elders of the family and of society. The author's basic premise is that to exist is to be connected, and that no matter how grandparents act, they affect the emotional well-being of their grandchildren, for better or for worse, simply because they exist., In an age when mounting economic and social pressures make it increasingly easier to split a family than to sustain one, the authors alert us to a forgotten source of family strength, the power of grandparents to enrich the lives as a whole. The case studies reported in this volume represent a first effort in an area left unexplored by developmental researchers. There are lessons here for social scientists, but even more for our alienated society.—Urie Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University

"The study, in particular, was designed to examine the grandmothers' thoughts and feelings about their relationships with their substance abusing adult children. Additionally, the knowledge gained from these relationships was used to try to understand why these grandmothers take on the responsibility of caring for their grandchildren when their life plans may not have included this care-taking function at this current age or stage."--Publisher/Back cover.

Census 2000 enumerated 158.9 million people aged 30 & over living in households in the U.S., of whom 5.8 million (or 3.6%) were co-resident grandparents, defined in this report as living with grandchildren younger than 18. Among these co-resident grandparents, 2.4 million (42%) were also ¿grandparent caregivers,¿ people who had primary responsibility for their co-resident grandchildren younger than 18. Among grandparent caregivers, 39% had cared for their grandchildren for 5 or more years. This report presents information obtained from 3 questions on the Census 2000 long form about co-resident grandparents. Census 2000 was the first time that questions on grandparental caregiving have been included in the decennial census. Tables.

A practical and supportive manual containing a 14-session workshop designed to help grandparents who are raising their grandchildren alone, written by a social services professor at Fordham University. Intended to be used by group leaders teaching a workshop, themes covered may be expanded or revised to fit the needs of a particular work group.

This briefs offers a comprehensive view of the journey of grandparents of children with disabilities by employing a wide range of theoretical approaches such as intergenerational relationships, positive psychology, psychoanalytic views and models of stress. It presents a multidimensional view of grandparents, which begins with the general role of grandparents in the family and the transition to grandparenthood, as a major life event. The briefs moves on to discuss grandparents’ roles under unique circumstances such as illness or disability in the family and then deals with perspectives of parents of children with disabilities on the role of grandparents. Finally, it reviews attitudes of professionals toward grandparents and concludes with suggested intervention strategies for working with families on intergenerational relationships.

Grandparents, with their greater life experience, will often realize?Xeven before the parents?Xthat a child is gifted, and that the child will need additional emotional and intellectual sustenance. Grandparents Guide to Gifted Children includes: ?XEarly signs of giftedness ?XSpecial needs of gifted children ?XAreas of concern ?XUnique roles of grandparents ?XBuilding a bond with a grandchild ?XMaximizing grandparenting ?XEducation plans ?XWhen a grandparent is the parent ?XLeaving a personal legacy

Older adults caring for developmentally disabled children have special needs. Are you and your agency doing all you can to help? Grandparents as Carers of Children with Disabilities: Facing the Challenges provides the first comprehensive picture of grandparents caring for children with developmental disabilities and their related requirements. Here you'll find information on the mental and physical health of these caregivers, highlighting their unique needs and the roles that agencies and advocates need to play in order to meet them. This unique volume will assist practitioners, administrators, and policymakers in including the needs of this group into planning and service delivery efforts. Grandparents as Carers of Children with Disabilities: Facing the Challenges takes an incisive look at: characteristics of these carers and the children they care for children in kinship care and their special needs the effect of kinship foster care on caregiving grandmothers the approach of Latino grandparents to bringing up children with special needs the service needs and provision issues of grandparent carers In this book, here is some of what you'll find: data from a school-based comprehensive multigenerational program in East Harlem, New York City, which explores environmental stressors associated with children coming into kinship care, discussing the impact on grandparent caregivers, with a focus on health status and access to care correlates of self-reported depressive symptoms among urban Latino grandparent caregivers a survey of grandparents (mostly African American, mostly female) caring for children with developmental disabilities in New York City that focuses on health status, emotional state, use of formal and informal services, and general life situation helpful charts and tables that put the facts at your fingertips a demonstration project that used an intervention model to determine how a three-pronged approach using outreach, support groups, and case management could be used to aid grandparents caring for children with developmental delay or disabilities ... and much more! As editors McCallion and Janicki point out, ”Primary childcare is rapidly becoming a normative experience of grandparenting. Grandparent primary care is found among all ethnic groups, and across all socioeconomic levels of society. Concern over preserving the family often causes grandparents to assume responsibility in spite of their limited financial means or own health conditions.” Grandparents as Carers of Children with Disabilities will enable you to provide these courageous, loving people with the help they need to do this extraordinarily difficult and often thankless job.

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.