Changing Family Patterns - Multigenerational Families

Despite lower birth rates and women delaying childbirth, increased longevity has resulted in people from four or five generations being alive at the same time. A number of researchers addressed issues that resulted from multiple generations coexisting in society, the workplace, and the same family. Books such as Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069, the 1991 work by William Strauss and Neil Howe, grouped people into generations based on events and time periods in American history. The authors identified common experiences shared by members of each generation that they believed had similar influences on the life attitudes of all members of that group. They suggested a recurring sequence of generational types and recurring social indicators such as substance abuse, fertility, immigration, and economic advance and setback.

Census 2000 identified 3.9 million families, 3.7% of all households, that contained three or four generations. The most common grouping (65%) of multigenerational households included the householder and his or her children and grandchildren. Immigrant families were more likely to have more than three generations in the household. In some cases, this was cultural, while in others immigrant families could not afford separate housing accommodations.

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

A growing trend in families is grandparents who have taken responsibility for raising grandchildren and sometimes great-grandchildren. The Census Bureau's 2003 Current Population Survey reported that 3.8 million children (5% of all children) lived in the home of one or both grandparents. In 19% of cases where children lived with grandparents, there were three or more children in the home. Often one or both parents of the children were also present in the home. In more than one-third of cases, however, neither of the children's parents were present and the grandparent(s) were responsible for the children. In 1970, 957,000 grandchildren were being raised by their grandparents without a parent present; in 2003 that number had increased almost 50% to 1.4 million children who were the responsibility of their grandparents. (See Table 6.6.)

Denver's Rocky Mountain News focused on the challenges faced by grandparents raising their grandchildren in a November 9, 2002, feature, "Grandparents as Parents: The Second Time Around." In Colorado 43% of grandparents living with grandchildren were actually raising the children. In Census Tract 9.02 on the south side of Pueblo, Colorado (Census tracts are small subdivisions of a county), reporter Burt Hubbard discovered a total of 140 grandparents with grandchildren in their homes. One hundred percent of these grandparents were raising one or more grandchildren, some since birth. The reasons ranged from parents who were deceased, in prison or addicted to drugs, or those who simply could not handle the responsibility of a child. The oldest grandparent interviewed was more than ninety years old and had raised her ten-year-old grandchild since birth.

These grandparents faced financial challenges. Many were living on retirement income or Social Security stipends; some had to return to the workforce. Expecting to coddle and spoil their grandchildren, they found themselves

TABLE 6.6

Grandchildren living with grandparents, 1970–2003
(Numbers in thousands)
		Grandchildren
			With parent(s) present
Year	Total children under 18	Total	Both parents present	Mother only present	Father only present	Without parent(s) present
SOURCE: "Table CH-7. Grandchildren Living in the Home of Their Grandparents: 1970–Present," U.S. Census Bureau, September 15, 2004, http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/tabCH-7.pdf (accessed September 24, 2004)
2003	73,001	3,767	547	1,576	227	1,416
2002	72,321	3,681	477	1,658	275	1,274
2001	72,006	3,844	510	1,755	231	1,348
2000	72,012	3,842	531	1,732	220	1,359
1999	71,703	3,919	535	1,803	250	1,331
1998	71,377	3,989	503	1,827	241	1,417
1997	70,983	3,894	554	1,785	247	1,309
1996	70,908	4,060	467	1,943	220	1,431
1995	70,254	3,965	427	1,876	195	1,466
1994	69,508	3,735	436	1,764	175	1,359
1993	66,893	3,368	475	1,647	229	1,017
1992	65,965	3,253	502	1,740	144	867
1991	65,093	3,320	559	1,674	151	937
1990	64,137	3,155	467	1,563	191	935
1980 Census	63,369	2,306	310	922	86	988
1970 Census	69,276	2,214	363	817	78	957

instead in the role of disciplinarians. They had to navigate new cultural attitudes among the younger generation and a school system that had changed dramatically since their own children were school age.

Grandparents Assisted Financially

Many grandparents helped with child care for their grandchildren while the parents worked. Some grandparents were called upon to assist their children with financial needs of the grandchildren. A 2003 survey by Wirthlin Worldwide found that 54% of grandparents planned to contribute to their grandchildren's college education expenses. One-quarter of those surveyed expected to pay 25–50% of the costs, while 20% planned to finance as much as 75% of the expenses.