Description of the Study

At Time 1, there were a total of 490 grandmothers enrolled in the study, ranging in age from 31 to 87 in our first year of data collection. Nearly half (47%) of our grandmothers work either full or part time, and 55% of grandmothers are married or have a significant other. Our grandmothers have an average of 3 grandchildren each, and the highest number of grandchildren is 31.

In terms of grandmothers’ roles with their grandchildren, 40% of grandmothers in our study are the primary caretakers of one or more of their grandchildren, while 28% share a household with both grandchildren and their parents, and 32% of the grandmothers in our study live in a separate house from their grandchildren. Grandmothers who live in a separate home from some or all their grandchildren are often very involved in the lives of their children and grandchildren and stay in touch with phone calls, visits, and emails. We have also found that between our first two waves of our study, 40 grandmothers have reported a change in their household arrangements, with grandchildren and adult children moving in or out. The women in our study come from 72 of the 88 counties in the state of Ohio.