Grandparents raising children - a growing trend

By Martin Merzer on 11/12/2010 @ 09:09 AM

The U.S. Census is reporting a sharp rise in the number of children living with their grandparents.

The increase comes in at 8 percent, the second such rise in two years, according to an article in The New York Times.

Andrew Cherlin, a professor of sociology and public policy at Johns Hopkins University, told the newspaper that 6.5 percent of all U.S. children now live with their grandparents, a 20-year high and double the rate in 1970. He attributes most of the increase to the persistent economic downturn.

“Grandparents are helping out as their adult children are losing their jobs,” he said.

Of particular note: Grandparents often are bearing much or all of the responsibility of raising their grandchildren. The Census reports that, of the 7.5 million children who lived with a grandparent in 2010, more than a fifth did not have a parent present in the household.

You can read the entire article here. What do you think of this trend? What are the implications for these children? Please share your thoughts in the Comments section below.