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This presentation summarizes a qualitative analysis from focus groups with African American, urban dwelling grandmothers raising grandchildren in parent-absent households. Nutritional needs of custodial grandparents are an under explored area of research. Previous studies on custodial grandparents have acknowledged the physical, social, and familial burdens they endure as caregivers of their grandchildren. Limited financial support is a consistent concern. One manifestation of having scarce monetary resources is not being able to meet daily nutritional requirements. As a result, adverse health outcomes related to the onset of diet-related diseases (e.g., obesity, hypertension, diabetes) are too common, especially for custodial grandparents of color. The present study qualitatively explores grandmothers’ (N=9) experiences and ideas about food choices/options, decisions about when and where to purchase food, and the involvement of grandchildren in food-related practices and traditions. Grandparent participants were recruited from a community-based intervention, a program that provides health and social support services to grandparents raising grandchildren in Atlanta. Each of the focus groups consisted of 4-6 custodial grandmothers , facilitated by a doctoral-level community nutritionist. The major themes summarized from the qualitative group interviews were framed within a feminist/race theoretical context. Dominant themes from the focus group encounters include traditional gender roles related to food purchase and preparation, prioritizing food options to meet family preferences, available/accessible urban-based food options, food knowledge deficits, and sustaining cultural identity and nutritional health. Findings suggest implications for food and health policy, community-level programming, and nutrition education interventions.

Grandparenthood is a significant social role for older adults and may have important health implications. Parenthood itself has been associated with some protective health effects, although findings have been mixed. Whether grandparenthood is associated with important long-term health effects such as mortality is largely unknown. This study examines the grandparenthood-mortality nexus, and whether it is modified by gender and education. Longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) were used, comprising twelve biennial follow-up waves from 1992 to 2014 with linked data on vital status derived from the National Death Index. Submodules assessed participants’ family structure during follow-up. The sample included 24,325 participants aged > 51 years with at least one child. Cox proportional hazard models were used to test the association between grandparenthood and mortality risk with adjustment for socio-demographic variables, for social variables including characteristics of and contact with children, and for health variables, including measures of overall, functional and mental health. Stratified models assessed these associations separately by gender and education. Grandparenthood was associated with a substantially increased mortality risk in women (fully adjusted HR = 1.65; 95% CI 1.27-21.14), and increased with larger number of grandchildren. No significant association was found for men (fully adjusted HR=1.25; 95% CI 0.97-1.62). Mortality risks associated with grandparenthood were highest among grandparents with low levels of education. The findings are among the first to suggest a potential grandparenthood survival “penalty”, especially for grandmothers. Higher levels of education appear to mitigate this negative survival effect among grandparents.

The influence of grandparents, in the context of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), is largely understudied. With strong kinship in Asian families, grandparents may provide a crucial resource to their grandchildren; not limited to those living together, but having close emotional proximity. This qualitative study used secondary analysis to explore the roles of grandparents, upon reflection of participants’ childhood adversities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 emerging adults, between 18 and 24 years old in Hong Kong, China. Participants were eligible if they: (1) reported at least one ACE, namely, abuse (physical, emotional, sexual), neglect (physical, emotional), witnessing domestic violence, or a dysfunctional household (due to parental divorce/death, household member substance use, incarceration, mental illness); and (2) described their interactions with grandparents during the interviews. Participants were asked to think of a challenging time during their childhood, and strategies they used to overcome them. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data regarding the interactions with grandparents were coded and analyzed by four researchers following interpretive description. Preliminary findings described four primary roles grandparents played in the context of ACEs, which were sometimes positive and/or negative. Grandparents were portrayed as being unique persons in participants’ lives that influenced how they faced their childhood adversities. We will discuss how grandparents’ stewardship may significantly shape cultural patterns of how families cope with ACEs. In particular, our findings, examined against literature, will discuss how grandparents may enhance resilience of young people with ACEs.

The contemporary American drug overdose epidemic has wreaked havoc on individuals, families, and communities across the country. As increasing numbers of middle-aged adults become addicted to or die from drugs, grandparents may be called upon to provide care for their grandchildren. However, few studies examine the broader social impacts of the drug overdose epidemic. This paper fills this gap in the literature by examining whether the opioid epidemic has contributed to increased grandparental care provision and coresidence. I use data from the 2000 Census and the 2011-2015 American Community Surveys, and data on drug overdose mortality (a measure of the epidemic’s severity) and socioeconomic indicators. I find consistent and robust associations between increases in drug overdose mortality and increases in: children’s likelihood of experiencing parental absence from the household, grandparent-grandchild coresidence, and grandparental provision of custodial care. Fixed-effect estimates correspond to an additional 158,138 grandparents coresiding with grandchildren, and a 3% increase in the proportion of coresident grandparents who are primarily responsible for their grandchildren. These associations are stronger among younger (aged 30-64) versus older (aged 65+) grandparents. This paper leverages multiple measures and nationally-representative data to demonstrate that increases in precarious family arrangements, vulnerability, and the burden of caregiving among older adults are occurring in response to the opioid epidemic. These findings suggest that the epidemic is placing considerable and unexpected strains on older adults’ financial and emotional resources at a time when they themselves may be requiring care, retiring from the labor force, and experiencing declines in health.

Across the US, millions of grandparents are providing vital care for their grandchildren with disabilities when their adult children are in need of assistance and public programs do not provide needed supports. Research suggests the impact on grandparent physical health is mixed. This paper draws on in-depth interviews with 50 grandparents to explore how caring for grandchildren with disabilities shapes their physical wellbeing. We use life course perspective to assess the choices grandparents make from available resources and options at different stages of their lives and the effects on their health. We find in addition to providing routine care, helping with feeding, bathing, and dressing, some grandparents provide constant supervision and medically intense care, such as tending to feeding tubes, catheters, and oxygen lines. Many grandparents said care work has improved, or at least helped sustain, their overall level of fitness, while other grandparents find that care work has adverse impacts. Often there is too much chasing, bending, and lifting for their aging bodies. This paper suggests that stronger social programs for children with disabilities and the grandparents who step in to help them would decrease the negative effects of care work on grandparent health.