Social Demography of Children Living with Grandparents

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): More than four million children live with their grandparents in the United States, representing over seven percent of all children under age 18. Most of these children also live with at least one parent, but others are in the primary care of a grandparent. Despite recent literature suggesting that the numbers of children living with grandparents are growing, only limited research has focused on this population. In particular, little is known about the implications for children of living with a grandparent in the household. The proposed research assesses the association between living with a grandparent and child economic hardship, using data from the 1992 and 1993 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) combined with information from the Survey of Program Dynamics (SPD), which follows the 1992/1993 SIPP respondents through 2002. The study includes three specific aims: (1) to examine economic hardship of children as it relates to grandparent coresidence; (2) to evaluate changes in grandchild-grandparent coresidence experienced by children in the panel; and (3) to examine the association between grandparent coresidence and over-time assessments of child economic hardship. Aspects of economic well-being considered include income-based measures such as the poverty rate, as well as measures based on reports of material hardship and food security in the child's household. Income packaging, or the composition of household income as derived from various public and private sources, will also be evaluated. Children in both "skipped-generation" and "three-generation" households are examined. This project will extend the understanding of the association between child economic well-being and living with grandparents by considering a nationally representative sample of children, examining both skipped generation and three-generation families, analyzing multiple indicators of economic hardship, and assessing changes in child economic well-being associated with changes in coresidence.