Who Cares? Grandparent/Grandchild Households

ABSTRACT

Based on data from the 1988 National Health Interview Survey and the Child Health Supplement, we compared the health of women 40 years of age and over living four family structures: alone, solely raising grandchildren, married with spouse only, and married with spouse and grandchildren. We found that, in general, women solely raising grandchildren have poorer health compared to women of a similar age living in other family structures and considerably worse health than women with spouses raising grandchildren.

KEYWORDS:

• Grandchildren
• grandparents
• health
• family