The Cambridge Handbook of Age and Ageing, first published in 2005, is a guide to the body of knowledge, theory, policy and practice relevant to age researchers and gerontologists around the world. It contains almost 80 original chapters, commissioned and written by the world's leading gerontologists from 16 countries and 5 continents. The broad focus of the book is on the behavioural and social sciences but it also includes important contributions from the biological and medical sciences. It provides comprehensive, accessible and authoritative accounts of all the key topics in the field ranging from theories of ageing, to demography, physical aspects of ageing, mental processes and ageing, nursing and health care for older people, the social context of ageing, cross cultural perspectives, relationships, quality of life, gender, and financial and policy provision. This handbook will be a must-have resource for all researchers, students and professionals with an interest in age and ageing.

The Cambridge handbook of age and ageing

Parenting practices (problem-solving and disciplinary styles) in a sample of 99 young, low-income, African-American multigenerational families were examined, using home-based observations of grandmothers and young mothers (mean age at first birth; 18.3; range = 13.3 to 25.5), interacting separately with 3-year-old children. A risk and resilience approach was applied in studying African-American families' behavior in harsh social contexts, and included a consideration of the role of kin, shared child rearing between mothers and grandmothers, coresidence, and adolescent parenthood. Mothers and grandmothers did not differ in the mean level of the quality of their parenting practices. Similarly, few significant correlations in parenting quality across generations were evident, and these primarily involved negative dimensions of parenting between younger childbearers and grandmothers. No main effect of mothers' age at first birth on mothers' parenting was found. In contrast, there was a main effect of grandmother coresidence on both mothers' and grandmothers' parenting, which was negative. Moreover, the interaction between coresidence and mothers' age at first birth indicated that multigenerational families most likely to provide positive parenting were those where older mothers did not reside with the grandmother. Yet, in families with very young mothers, coresiding grandmothers showed higher quality of parenting than did non-coresiding grandmothers.

Young African‐American Multigenerational Families in Poverty: Quality of Mothering and Grandmothering

The Family of Later Life: A Decade Review.

Purpose: This study addressed well-being of grandmothers raising grandchildren in coparenting and custodial households in a sample of African American, Latino, and White grandmothers. Design and Methods: A sample of 1,058 grandmothers was recruited through the schools and media. Grandmothers raising or helping to raise school-aged grandchildren in Los Angeles were interviewed, and analyses were conducted within ethnic groups. Results: African American grandmothers experienced equal well-being in coparenting and custodial families; however, if the stresses related to the parents’ problems were removed by statistical control, they favored the custodial arrangement. Latino grandmothers had greater well-being in coparenting families, reflecting a tradition of intergenerational living. White custodial grandmothers experienced somewhat higher levels of affect (positive and negative) but showed no difference in other types of well-being. Implications: The cultural lens through which grandparenthood is viewed has a marked impact on the adaptation to custodial or coparenting family structures.

/pdf/grandmothers-raising-grandchildren-family-structure-and-well-1wsxb22lo6.pdf

Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren: Family Structure and Well-Being in Culturally Diverse Families.

This study examines life course and sociodemographic variations in the ways grandparents are involved with grandchildren in terms of structural, functional, shared activities, and affective-cognitive aspects of these relationships. Family life stage, as well as grandparents' gender, marital status, race, and education, influenced how the grandparent role was enacted. Younger grandparents tended to live closer to and have greater contact with grandchildren and baby-sit and share recreational activities. Older grandparents tended to provide financial assistance and more strongly identified with the role. When their grandchildren were younger, grandparents tended to interact more with them, share more activities, provide baby-sitting, and receive more symbolic rewards from the grandparent role. Many effects related to grandchildren's age were explained by the greater opportunity of grandparents to interact with younger grandchildren. The article concludes that it is important to consider the life course posi...

How Americans Enact the Grandparent Role Across the Family Life Course

Each member of 70 pairs of middle-class grandparents was interviewed at length regarding relations to grandchildren, and the data were analyzed for degree of comfort in the grandparent role, significance of the role, and style with which the role is enacted. The Fun Seeker emerged as a frequent pattern, one in which the grandparent-child relationship is characterized by "fun morality." This pattern and the Distant Figure pattern, characterized by discomfort and psychological distance from the child, were more frequent in grandparents who were under 65 than in those over 65. Grandparenthood merits further study as a phenomenon of middle age and from the perspective of adult socialization.

Karol K. Weinstein

Papers

The changing American grandparent.