Grandparents Are Raising More Children

Grandparents raising their grandchildren may be more prevalent than anyone originally guessed and most common among white middle-class families.

A study in the Gerontologist, the national research digest of the American Society on Aging, found that one out of every 10 grandparents surveyed said they were the primary caregiver for a grandchild for at least six months at some point in that child’s life.

Of those 173 grandparents who were raising grandchildren during the 1993 survey period, 62 percent were white, 27 percent black and 10 percent Hispanic.