t a rapid rate and that more than one in ten grand parents (10.9 percent) are at some point responsible for raising a grandchild for at least six months or more.
Although media accounts have tended to focus on single, low-income, African-American women raising their grandchildren, Roe and Minkler (2000) contend that recent national studies suggest that the typical grandparent raising a grandchild is a white, married woman living above the poverty line. Nationally, more than half of grandparent caregivers are married (54 percent) and 77 percent are women. However, African-American children are four to five times more likely than non-Hispanic white children to be living in kinship care households. About 6.5 percent of Hispanic children, 4.1 percent of white children, and 13.5 percent of African-American children live with grandparents or other relatives. Roe and Minkler believe that although the duration of intergenerational residents varies by race, class, region, and other factors, almost three-quarters of children who come into the care of a grandparent do so when they are infants or preschoolers. Over 40 percent remain for a period of five or more years. Finally, Roe and Minkler (2000) claim that older children and those living in the South have a greater likelihood of living with grandparents.
Any number of problems have been identified that impact upon grandparents and the children they care for. Harrison, Richman, and Vittimberga (2000) note that grandparents often face financial, social, legal, educational, and physical challenges in caring for their grandchildren. Many grandparents lack the support resources needed to facilitate helping with the increased stress of caring for younger children, many of whom can be troubled, disturbed, requiring physical or psychological or educational assistance. Since many children who are legally remanded to the custody of grandparents or informally left in the care of grandpar...