Custodial Grandparents: Policies Affecting Care

The pathway to grandparenting stress: trauma, relational conflict, and emotional well-being

“…Research to date has examined the well-being of grandparents (Baker & Silverstein, 2008a;Butler & Zakari, 2005;Gerard, Landry-Meyer, & Roe, 2006;Hayslip & Glover, 2008;Leder, Grinstead, & Torres, 2007;Neely-Barnes, Graff, & Washington, 2010), health behaviors of grandparents (Baker & Silverstein, 2008b), the role of grandparents (Landry-Meyer & Newman, 2004), policies and laws affecting custodial grandparents (Bratteli, Bjelde, & Pigatti, 2008;Cox, 2009;Robinson-Dooley & Kropf, 2006;Van Etten & Gautam, 2012), services (Campbell, Carthron, Miles, & Brown, 2012;Collins, 2011;Cox, 2008;Kelley, Whitley, & Campos, 2010), the grandparentÀgrandchild relationship (Dolbin-MacNab & Keiley, 2006;Poehlmann et al, 2008), the health and achievement of grandchildren (Smith & Palmieri, 2007), and ethnic and cultural implications for grandfamilies (Carr, Hayslip, & Gray, 2012); Conway, Jones, & Speakes-Lewis, 2011;Kelch-Oliver, 2008). The literature has been primarily cross-sectional in nature and has focused on establishing an empiricallybased understanding of the needs of grandfamilies.…”

Grandparenting: Roles and responsibilities and its implications for kinship care policies

“…Finally, support to grandparents providing care to their grandchildren has been identified in the literature as being critically important (Cox, 2009). In this study, in considering any support needs, grandparents were able to identify most of the support needs that are commonly identified in the literature (e.g.…”

“…In their role as surrogate parents (within the context of child protection), many issues have been identified in relation to the role of grandparents such as support regarding legal issues (Cox, 2009), their own health issues, limited services, lack of permanency planning and feelings of isolation (King et al, 2009). On the positive side, benefits include family relations as well as culture and related state policies (Worall, 2009) that recognize and support grandparenting roles.…”

Poverty and Material Hardship in Grandparent‐Headed Households

“…Grandparents who are below the poverty line may be eligible for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF); unfortunately, the strict eligibility requirements imposed through welfare reform may be prohibitive for grandparent-headed households. Grandparents who receive such benefits are subject to work requirements and time limits on assistance (Cox, 2009). For grandparents who have already exited the labor force or who are disabled, work requirements may be unreasonable.…”