Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: Are They Up to the Job?

Introduction: According to the CDC’s National Survey of Non-Parental Care (NSNPC), more than 3% of children live apart from their parents. Approximately two-thirds of children in non-parental care are being raised by one or more grandparents. Children in non-parental care have a greater incidence of developmental and behavioral disorders. At the same time, parenting grandparents may feel isolated from peers and may not take advantage of local/online supports. Although the NSNPC provides important insights into the health, parenting, and social support issues of the grandparent-child dyad, it did not include a contemporaneous cohort of children living with parents. The 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) provides the opportunity to compare children in households being raised by one/both grandparents (GP-HH) with children being raised by one/both parents (P-HH). Objective: To assess the extent of differences between grandparent caregivers (GP-Cs) and parent caregivers (P-Cs) in managing day-to-day parenting demands and to examine several discrete child characteristics and parenting behaviors in a large, nationally representative sample of US children. Methods: Data from the 2016 NSCH reflects 50,212 completed interviews, and survey results are adjusted and weighted to reflect the demographic composition of non-institutionalized children/adolescents ages 0-17. Rao-Scott chi square tests were done to assess between-group differences, and adjusted odds ratios were then calculated for NSCH items regarding: child temperament, child behavior, caregiver health status, caregiver support, and quality of caregiver-child interaction. Results: The NSCH data set consisted of 1,250 GP-HH (276 single GP-C; 974 2GP-CG) and 44,807 P-HH (4,812 single P-C; 39,995 2P-C). There were no differences in child sex or age, or respondent sex between GP-HH and P-HH. GP-HH had a greater proportion of non-Hispanic black children, household income at or below the federal poverty line, lower level of education, and were more likely to be single-parent households (all p < 0.0001). GCs reported worse physical health and mental health. Children in GP-HH were somewhat more argumentative, more likely to become angry/anxious with transitions, and to lose their temper. GP-C and P-C did not differ when asked if the child “does things that really bother” them, is “harder to care for” than peers, or if they “felt angry with this child”. Grandparents and parents did not differ on most measures of parent coping, parenting stress, or caregiver-child interactions when stratified by child health and child age. (Figure 1a-c). A substantial proportion of GP-C (31%) and P-C (24%) noted they did not have anyone “to turn to for day-to-day emotional support with parenting”. Conclusion: In spite of raising seemingly more difficult children and despite having greater physical and mental health issues, grandparents raising their grandchildren appear to be coping with the stresses of parenting just as well as biological/adoptive parent caregivers.