From projo.com
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Rhode Island news
8.6.2001
Grandparents often 'first line of defense'
• The Census Bureau is tracking the number of grandparents who step in and take care of their grandchildren in troubled families.
BY D. MORGAN McVICAR
Journal Staff Writer
Rhode Island ranks last in the United States in the percentage of grandparent-headed households in which the grandparent is primarily responsible for the child's basic needs.
Nationally, of households headed by a grandparent where at least one grandchild resides, 41.9 percent of the grandparents are the children's primary caregivers. In Rhode Island, the figure is only 28.1 percent. Massachusetts also trailed the national average, at 34.2 percent.
Those figures were released today by the U.S. Census Bureau, and are based on a survey of 700,000 households across the country, including 6,600 households in Rhode Island and 22,000 in Massachusetts. The data are part of a yearlong program to collect information about housing, people and employment.
A question about grandparents raising their grandchildren was part of the census for the first time in 2000. The results will not be available until next summer.
But the smaller survey suggests, as have previous studies in recent years, that grandparent as child-rearer is a growing phenomenon.
In 1970, 3.2 percent of the nation's children lived in the homes of their grandparents, according to the Population Reference Bureau. By 1999, the number had increased to 5.4 percent.
In Rhode Island, an estimated 4 percent of children live in a household headed by a grandparent, according to Census Bureau surveys in the late 1990s. In 1998, there were about 9,700 Rhode Island children living in their grandparent's home.
THE SIGNIFICANCE of these numbers is open to interpretation. Congress was concerned enough by the numbers to order the Census Bureau to add a question about grandparent-headed households to the 2000 census.
A report from the Census Bureau last year stated that between 1992 and 1997, the greatest growth occurred among grandchildren living with grandparents with no parent present. The report attributed the increase to the growth in drug use among parents, teen pregnancy, divorce, mental and physical illness, AIDS, crime, child abuse and neglect, and incarceration of parents.
The report also stated that grandchildren in grandparent-headed families are more likely to be black, younger, and living in the South than grandchildren in parent-maintained families. They are also more likely to be poorer than other children.
Twenty-seven percent of children in homes maintained by grandparents live in poverty, compared with 20 percent overall. And while 15 percent of children overall had no health insurance in 1996, 33 percent in grandparent-headed homes had no such coverage.
The bureau's and other studies have not yet translated into wide-scale public policy changes, but there is a heightened awareness of the situation that is expected to eventually result in policy changes.
"There is a growing awareness of the important role grandparents are playing and that they need to be supported," says Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of Rhode Island Kids Count, an agency that works to improve the health, education and economic well-being of children.
"Targeted outreach programs geared toward grandparents are needed to make sure kids don't fall through the cracks in health insurance and wellness programs," Bryant says.
Jane Hayward, the associate director of the Rhode Island Department of Human Services, says, "Certainly we have seen an increase in grandparents as primary caretakers of youngsters. We see it as they come in and apply for assistance, whether it's cash or health insurance.
"But this is not a situation just for poor folks," Hayward says. "It goes across economic boundaries. My sense is substance abuse is involved, issues with mental illness and other long-term disabilities. Those things don't happen just in poor families.
"The question is, are people having trouble getting access to services."
And the answer is we don't really know -- yet.
"What I can say to you is, we are in the process of analyzing this group," Hayward says. "But we will not have any hard, clean data" for months at the least.
NATIONALLY, according to the census's 1999 report, the focus has sharpened on grandparents' access to public and private sources of support. They include cash assistance, health insurance and access to health care, education services, legal services, and child care and workplace policies affecting working grandparents who are caregivers.
The attention to the grandparent-as-caregiver phenomenon notwithstanding, grandparents have stepped in when needed since time immemorial.
"Throughout the history of families, the first line of defense has always been the grandparents," Bryant says. "They have often been the unsung heroes of our communities."
Frances Goldscheider, a professor of sociology at Brown University, says solutions to the problem should not be limited to social services for those who qualify. Rather, she says, we should emulate the European model, where young people struggling to start careers and families receive far more support than is the case here.
"What's happening now, some of this -- AIDS, drugs, the crashing of lives all around -- is because a lot of young adult lives are being crushed by an economy in which grandparents tend to have more stable income," Goldscheider says.
"They bought their house long ago, when mortgage rates were low and house prices were low, and they have reasonable pensions and Social Security," she says. "What alarms me is that we do such a terrible job of taking care of young adults, how difficult it is to leave home and establish yourself in a career and relationship, so much more so than in the '50s and '60s and '70s.
"Look at the cost of rent -- half of poor families are paying 50 to 60 percent of their income for rent. We bring in graduate students and don't pay them enough to pay Providence rents.
"Most young adults are relatively poor, go without health insurance, their starting jobs have no benefits."
So, what could be done? "A lot," Goldscheider says. "Every country in Europe has insurance for young adults and daycare so people can work, and child allowances. We are underinvesting in schools, health care and family incomes.
"We put all of our money into old folks. The proportion of social spending on older to young is the most extreme of any country.
"Why are the parents not there?" Goldscheider says. "Blame them for being drug users or whatever. But it is the lack of opportunities they face and the pressures they're under that is why many don't do so well."
Digital extra:
Read earlier stories in the Journal's continuing coverage of the Census 2000 results:
http://projo.com/news/census/
Grandparents often 'first line of defense'
• The Census Bureau is tracking the number of grandparents who step in and take care of their grandchildren in troubled families.
| Census highlights
• Rhode Island and Massachusetts have the highest concentrations of people whose ancestors came from Portugal and its former colony Cape Verde. Rhode Island led the states, with 7.5 percent of its population tracing its primary roots to Portugal, with Massachusetts second, at 4.1 percent. Four out of every five of the Cape Verdean descendants in the United States live in Massachusetts or Rhode Island. • Massachusetts placed among the handful of states having the highest proportion of residents 25 and older with a four-year college degree or more, at about 35 percent. Rhode Island was on par with the national average, about 25 percent. • Rhode Islanders got to work more quickly than workers in Massachusetts. One-third of all Rhode Island commuters got to work in less than 15 minutes, compared with one-fourth of Massachusetts commuters. On the long end of the commute, nearly one out of 10 drivers in Massachusetts spent at least one hour on the road each way; the proportion in Rhode Island was half that. • Rhode Island and Massachusetts rank among the top states in the percentage of people 15 and older who have never married (about 30 percent). • When it comes to settling in, Rhode Island and Massachusetts homeowners are above the U.S. average. One-third of all homeowners in Rhode Island and Massachusetts have been in their houses since 1970 or earlier. • The median value of a house in Massachusetts -- at nearly $190,000 -- was the third highest in the country, after Hawaii and California. Rhode Island's median value, at more than $135,000, was above the national average. SOURCE: Analysis by Journal staff writer David Herzog of Census 2000 Supplementary Survey data. |
Journal Staff Writer
Rhode Island ranks last in the United States in the percentage of grandparent-headed households in which the grandparent is primarily responsible for the child's basic needs.
Nationally, of households headed by a grandparent where at least one grandchild resides, 41.9 percent of the grandparents are the children's primary caregivers. In Rhode Island, the figure is only 28.1 percent. Massachusetts also trailed the national average, at 34.2 percent.
Those figures were released today by the U.S. Census Bureau, and are based on a survey of 700,000 households across the country, including 6,600 households in Rhode Island and 22,000 in Massachusetts. The data are part of a yearlong program to collect information about housing, people and employment.
A question about grandparents raising their grandchildren was part of the census for the first time in 2000. The results will not be available until next summer.
But the smaller survey suggests, as have previous studies in recent years, that grandparent as child-rearer is a growing phenomenon.
In 1970, 3.2 percent of the nation's children lived in the homes of their grandparents, according to the Population Reference Bureau. By 1999, the number had increased to 5.4 percent.
In Rhode Island, an estimated 4 percent of children live in a household headed by a grandparent, according to Census Bureau surveys in the late 1990s. In 1998, there were about 9,700 Rhode Island children living in their grandparent's home.
THE SIGNIFICANCE of these numbers is open to interpretation. Congress was concerned enough by the numbers to order the Census Bureau to add a question about grandparent-headed households to the 2000 census.
A report from the Census Bureau last year stated that between 1992 and 1997, the greatest growth occurred among grandchildren living with grandparents with no parent present. The report attributed the increase to the growth in drug use among parents, teen pregnancy, divorce, mental and physical illness, AIDS, crime, child abuse and neglect, and incarceration of parents.
The report also stated that grandchildren in grandparent-headed families are more likely to be black, younger, and living in the South than grandchildren in parent-maintained families. They are also more likely to be poorer than other children.
Twenty-seven percent of children in homes maintained by grandparents live in poverty, compared with 20 percent overall. And while 15 percent of children overall had no health insurance in 1996, 33 percent in grandparent-headed homes had no such coverage.
The bureau's and other studies have not yet translated into wide-scale public policy changes, but there is a heightened awareness of the situation that is expected to eventually result in policy changes.
"There is a growing awareness of the important role grandparents are playing and that they need to be supported," says Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of Rhode Island Kids Count, an agency that works to improve the health, education and economic well-being of children.
"Targeted outreach programs geared toward grandparents are needed to make sure kids don't fall through the cracks in health insurance and wellness programs," Bryant says.
Jane Hayward, the associate director of the Rhode Island Department of Human Services, says, "Certainly we have seen an increase in grandparents as primary caretakers of youngsters. We see it as they come in and apply for assistance, whether it's cash or health insurance.
"But this is not a situation just for poor folks," Hayward says. "It goes across economic boundaries. My sense is substance abuse is involved, issues with mental illness and other long-term disabilities. Those things don't happen just in poor families.
"The question is, are people having trouble getting access to services."
And the answer is we don't really know -- yet.
"What I can say to you is, we are in the process of analyzing this group," Hayward says. "But we will not have any hard, clean data" for months at the least.
NATIONALLY, according to the census's 1999 report, the focus has sharpened on grandparents' access to public and private sources of support. They include cash assistance, health insurance and access to health care, education services, legal services, and child care and workplace policies affecting working grandparents who are caregivers.
The attention to the grandparent-as-caregiver phenomenon notwithstanding, grandparents have stepped in when needed since time immemorial.
"Throughout the history of families, the first line of defense has always been the grandparents," Bryant says. "They have often been the unsung heroes of our communities."
Frances Goldscheider, a professor of sociology at Brown University, says solutions to the problem should not be limited to social services for those who qualify. Rather, she says, we should emulate the European model, where young people struggling to start careers and families receive far more support than is the case here.
"What's happening now, some of this -- AIDS, drugs, the crashing of lives all around -- is because a lot of young adult lives are being crushed by an economy in which grandparents tend to have more stable income," Goldscheider says.
"They bought their house long ago, when mortgage rates were low and house prices were low, and they have reasonable pensions and Social Security," she says. "What alarms me is that we do such a terrible job of taking care of young adults, how difficult it is to leave home and establish yourself in a career and relationship, so much more so than in the '50s and '60s and '70s.
"Look at the cost of rent -- half of poor families are paying 50 to 60 percent of their income for rent. We bring in graduate students and don't pay them enough to pay Providence rents.
"Most young adults are relatively poor, go without health insurance, their starting jobs have no benefits."
So, what could be done? "A lot," Goldscheider says. "Every country in Europe has insurance for young adults and daycare so people can work, and child allowances. We are underinvesting in schools, health care and family incomes.
"We put all of our money into old folks. The proportion of social spending on older to young is the most extreme of any country.
"Why are the parents not there?" Goldscheider says. "Blame them for being drug users or whatever. But it is the lack of opportunities they face and the pressures they're under that is why many don't do so well."
Digital extra:
Read earlier stories in the Journal's continuing coverage of the Census 2000 results:
http://projo.com/news/census/
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