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Grandparent at Home Buffers Drawbacks of
Single-Parenthood
By Susan S. Lang
 ITHACA,
N.Y., May 2, 2005 - Many studies have shown that children living in a
single-parent family tend to do worse academically and receive less
intellectual stimulation than children living with married parents.
Having a grandparent in the home, however, appears to buffer some of
these negative effects, according to a new Cornell University study.
"When looking at children's test scores, we find
that children who live with a single mom and a grandparent fare just as
well as children living with married parents," says Rachel Dunifon,
assistant professor of policy analysis and management in the College of
Human Ecology at Cornell. "These findings contradict the idea that
living with two married parents is the primary situation in which
children can thrive."
Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of
Youth, Dunifon found that living with a single mother is linked to
significant declines in academic achievement. In contrast, the test
scores of children who live in single-mother families that also contain
a grandparent do not significantly differ from children in
married-couple families, she says.
In 2003 about 23 percent of all U.S. children lived
with a single mother, including 16 percent of white children and 51
percent of African-American children. Of these children, 13 percent also
lived with a grandparent in the household.
The role of grandparents in single-parent families
can be important to policy. "For example, some welfare policies for
single mothers try to encourage marriage because the common thinking is
that children fare best when living with married parents," says Dunifon.
Dunifon and co-author Lori Kowaleski-Jones,
assistant professor of family and consumer studies at the University of
Utah, presented their findings at the Population Association of America
annual meeting, April 1, in Philadelphia.
Dunifon is launching a new study on the role of grandparents in the
lives of adolescent grandchildren with a new $300,000 grant over five
years from the William T. Grant Foundation Scholars Program. The study
will include not only analyses of several longitudinal datasets but also
in-depth interviews to assess interactions between grandparents and
adolescent grandchildren.
"With longer life spans, more children living
without both biological parents and more grandparents raising
grandchildren, we need to better understand the role of grandparents
during the vulnerable adolescence period," says Dunifon. "Grandparents
can serve as an important source of potential strength for youth as they
make their way through the transition of adolescence into adulthood."
In addition to studying the role of grandparents in
single-mother families, Dunifon will also examine children who do not
live with either parent and who are being raised by grandparents. This,
too, is an important policy concern, Dunifon says.
"Some states, including New York, require by law
that when children are removed from their homes, relatives must first be
contacted for potential caregiving before the child goes into foster
care with strangers," she said. "Also, in some states, grandparents
raising grandchildren don't have access to the same kinds of support
programs as foster parents. For all these reasons, it's important to do
more research on how children fare when being raised by their
grandparents."
Related World Wide Web sites:
> Rachel Dunifon :
http://www.human.cornell.edu/faculty/facultybio.cfm?netid=red26&facs=1
> Characteristics of Relative Caregivers and
Children in Their Care in New York State:
http://www.parenting.cit.cornell.edu/research.html
> Population Association of America:
http://www.popassoc.org/
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