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Grandparent
at home
buffers Single-Parenthood
Newswise — 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 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.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."
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