More American children live with grandparents

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — More American children are calling Grandma’s house home. In Washington state alone, the 2000 Census says, nearly 62,000 children live in homes headed by grandparents, up 59 percent from 1990.

Increases also were large in many other states for which the latest round of census data is available. Nevada’s and Utah’s rates shot up by 108 percent, and Arizona and Alaska’s increases were 73.8 and 73.1 percent, respectively.

The remaining 30 states for which data is available saw increases smaller than Washington’s. Only the District of Columbia experienced a drop.

Figures being released today show that 6.29 percent of children under 18 live in grandparent-headed homes. The 1990 census found 3.5 million children under 18 in the United States, or 5.5 percent of kids, living in a grandparent-headed home, up from 3.2 percent of kids in 1970.

Groups including AARP, the nation’s largest advocacy group for senior citizens, hope the data persuade lawmakers to earmark more financial assistance for grandparents thrust into parenting roles again.

A 1997 Census Bureau survey estimated that over half the kids living in grandparent-headed homes had their mother living in the house with them. About one-third of the homes did not include the grandchild’s parent.

Additionally, these figures do not show the full extent to which grandparents play a caregiving role for grandchildren, since the census does not cover, for instance, grandparents living in a home headed by their own son or daughter.

While previous studies have shown that grandparent-headed households occur more in low-income families, divorce, career choices and job constraints are causing numbers to rise in all socioeconomic groups, said Gregory Brock, director of the University of Kentucky Family Center.