Grandparent Caretakers
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As America's population ages, any number of important issues are emerging that require the development of new insights, assistance strategies, and effective interventions. For example, Markides and Mindel (1987) have noted that older Americans, regardless of ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, encounter physical, emotional, social, financial, and familial problems that are often difficult to resolve or address. Angel and Angel (1997) also comment that one of the most difficult issues faced by older Americans is related to the question of who will provide them with care or support; simultaneously, many grandparents find themselves faced with the necessity of providing care or assuming custodial responsibility for grandchildren. Recently, a growing number of grandparents have assumed parental roles when their own children are deemed an unfit parent or when other family circumstances require the transfer of child care from a parent to a grandparent (Landry-Meyer, p. 381). This trend has been associated with a number of conditions including nonmarital child bearing, increases in substance abuse, mental illness and social problems, incarceration, and divorce (Landry-Meyer, 1999). As of 1997, in the United States, 5.5 percent of all children under the age of 18, or a total of 3.9 million children lived in a household maintained by their grandparents (Futurist, 1999). The problems associated with this trend are of some significance.
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ittimberga (2000) also believe that in individual counseling for grandparents is essential. Grandparents face personal issues related to health and aging which are made more difficult when new family responsibilities are acquired. Because of their importance as caretakers, grandparents should be the focus of structured intervention efforts. Referral systems and support networks should be created within target communities to provide such services and conduct outreach efforts to identify potential service recipients, their needs, and related service initiatives. These efforts may ameliorate but will most probably not eliminate the problem, which is said by Burnette (1999) to be of special significance in already stressed poor or less affluent ethnic families and communities.
Research Hypothesis
Burnette (1999), in a similar study, hypothesized that acculturation level, measured as self-assessed ability to speak, read and write English and Spanish, would have a direct bearing on Latino grandparents' ability and willingness to obtain support and assistance from social work or service agencies and others providing for grandparents and their dependent grandchildren. Given these considerations, the research hypothesis to be tested
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Roe Minkler, Data Analysis, Special Ed/tutoring, Richman Vittimberga, English Spanish, Hispanics African-Americans, Angel Angel, Campbell Lew-Ting, Description Interviews, Markides Mindel, burnette 1999, language barrier, roe minkler, richman vittimberga 2000, child care, harrison richman, vittimberga 2000, percent reported, richman vittimberga, landry-meyer 1999, caring dependent, harrison richman vittimberga, grandparents caring dependent, speak read write, roe minkler 2000,
Approximate Word count = 2779
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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