Grandparenting varies enormously in the United States and here we discuss that growing diversity. Relying on exchange and reciprocity, feminist, and political economic theoretical perspectives, we begin by exploring the increasing need for grandchild care and assistance in the United States and the dearth of federal and employer supports for working families. Assessing the impact of sociodemographic trends, notably the rise in single parenting and the increase in employment among grandparents, we assess the intensification of grandparenting. Then we turn to issues related to proximity, examining the pleasures and challenges of coresidential, custodial, long distance, and transnational grandparenting. Finally, we turn to the impact of grandparenting on the emotional, physical, and financial wellbeing of grandparents.

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Increasing concern over the quality of care in nursing homes has prompted the National Institute of Medicine to recommend that residents have regular input into nursing home administration, primarily through the development of resident councils. Yet little is known of the effectiveness of resident councils. The literature is divided in its assessment of the potential of the institutionalized to represent themselves. Rather than suggesting either that resident councils are impotent or that they are a cure-all, these data, which examine the activities and effectiveness of existing resident councils, suggest that resident councils are successful in accomplishing some but not all of their objectives, that their success is maximized when professional organizers are available to help residents overcome the many barriers they face, and that there are many institutional factors that resident councils are seldom in any position to control.

Although poverty rates among the elderly in the US are at an all-time low, many face rising fiscal insecurity. The US welfare state is being remodeled in market-friendly ways that maximise individual choice, risk, and responsibility, rather than family friendly ways that maximise shared risk and responsibility and reduce insecurity. This article analyses how each of the main sources of income for the aged are being either frozen or shrunk in ways that are likely to increase inequality and insecurity in the years ahead among the elderly, particularly those who are female, black and/or Hispanic, and unmarried. The article assesses various policy changes for their capacity to either increase or decrease financial insecurity and inequality, particularly for those with a life time of lower earnings, more labour force disruptions and greater responsibility for providing unpaid care work for the young, disabled or frail elderly.