Profiles of Grandmothers Who Help Care for Their Grandchildren in the United States

Abstract

Profiles of Grandmothers Who Help Care for Their Grandchildren in the United States* Nazli Baydar,** and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn This study examines the characteristics of grandmothers who help provide care for their grandchildren, using data from a nationally representative sample (N = 2,095). Overall, 43% of grandmothers helped provide care for their grandchildren on a regular basis. Grandmothers' age, living arrangements, number of children, number of grandchildren, education and health were associated with the likelihood of caregiving. Cluster analyses were conducted to identify a typology of grandmothers. This typology was based on caregiving, social roles, demographic characteristics, and well-being of the grandmothers. Four types of grandmothers were identified. Homemaker grandmothers (19%) and young-and-connected grandmothers (23%) helped provide care for their grandchildren. Remote grandmothers (32%) and frail grandmothers (26%) did not provide care. Caregiving did not prevent the grandmothers from assuming other roles within and outside the family. Key Words: child care. grandmothers. Social and demographic changes during the last thirty years underscore the importance of research focusing on intergenerational family relationships. Demographic changes in family structure, increases in longevity, decreases in limitations of daily living for individuals in end-life, rises in maternal employment (and the corresponding demand for child care), and increases in multigenerational households due to single parenthood and poverty are some of the trends that focused attention on intergenerational family relationships (Bumpass & Raley, 1995; Furukawa, 1994; Hernandez, 1993). Most of these changes occurred between 1970 and 1990. The rate of change was most rapid between 1970 and 1980. For example, the life expectation at birth increased by 2.7 years between 1970 and 1980, and 1.4 years between 1980 and 1990. The labor force participation rate of married women with children under six years of age increased by 49% between 1970 and 1980, and by 31% between 1980 and 1990. The divorce rate increased from 3.5 per thousand to 5.2 per thousand from 1970 to 1980, and dropped to 4.7% by 1990 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1997). The trends in social and demographic factors that shape the family raises the question of how these trends may affect the organization of child care in the family. More specifically, the question arises whether the increasing availability of the older generation is likely to bring about grandparent involvement in child care. A substantial body of research has focused on the content and meaning of the grandparenthood role, especially the grandmotherhood role in today's American families (Cherlin & Furstenberg, 1986; Nahemow, 1985; Neugarten & Weinstein, 1964). Previous studies on the characterization of the grandparenthood role established that the style of grandparenthood differs across individuals, across the life span of grandparents, and across the life span of grandchildren. Based on these differences, styles of grandparenting have been described. Previous studies on typologies of grandparenting have been reviewed elsewhere (Roberto, 1990). The current study furthers previous work on types of grandparenting in three areas. First, it uses data from a large national sample of grandmothers rather than a small homogenous sample. Second, it focuses on the role performance-helping take care of a grandchild-rather than role ideology of grandmothers. Third, in drawing a typology, it considers concurrent social roles of grandmothers in addition to grandparenting. In doing so, it draws a richer typology than that based solely on the grandparenting role. Many studies that present in-depth analyses of the styles and meaning of grandmotherhood focus on homogenous subgroups of grandmothers. Examples of such subgroups are grandmothers of college students, inner-city African American grandmothers, or grandmothers who take care of the children of their institutionalized adult daughters (e. …