Grandmothers' involvement among young adolescents growing up in poverty

Grandmothers often play an important role in low-income minority families through providing support to their adult children as well as care to their grandchildren. However, little is known about how varying types of grandmother involvement may influence their grandchildren's functioning. This paper uses data from Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study, a longitudinal study sampling low-income minority youth from high-poverty neighborhoods, to explore how young adolescents (age 10-14 years at Time 1) function over time based on grandmothers' residential status and their level of caretaking responsibility. Analyses find that young adolescents with a custodial grandmother displayed greater levels of externalizing problem behaviors over time while young adolescents with a co-residing grandmother reported fewer depressive symptoms over time as compared with their peers. The importance of considering the influence of grandmothers who are more involved, especially among low-income, minority families, in research and practice will be discussed.