Grandparenting Children with Disabilities

Childhood disabilities, particularly cognitive disabilities, are on the rise yet social programs and services to help US families respond to disabilities are not. Many families turn to grandparents for assistance juggling work, family responsibilities, and specialized therapies. This book is based on in-depth interviews with grandparents who are providing at least some care to grandchildren with disabilities. The analyses will help to better understand (1) under what conditions grandparents provide care and support, (2) what types and intensities of care and support grandparents provide, and (3) the impact of that care and support on grandparents’ social, emotional, physical, and financial wellbeing.

In this fascinating and provocative book, Madonna Harrington Meyer and Ynesse Abdul-Malak take readers on a deep dive into the complex lives of grandparents who care for their disabled grandchildren. In Grandparenting Children with Disabilities, their interviews reveal the joy, meaning, and purpose grandparents find in caregiving, the challenges and frustrations they encounter, and the many ways they compromise their own health and well-being for the sake of their grandchildren.  Drawing from theories of cumulative inequality and from their deep knowledge of the US policy context, the authors lay bare the systemic failures that leave families of children with disabilities without adequate support and that place the most vulnerable among them at grave physical, emotional, and financial risk…

Jane McLeod, Provost Professor, Indiana University

Grandparents in the U.S. already take on far more parenting responsibilities as compared to their peers in other countries. Grandparenting Children with Disabilities demonstrates that the intensity of these responsibilities is compounded for those whose grandchildren have disabilities given limited policy supports and a society still largely unaccommodating to those with disabilities. This book beautifully navigates the tension between the love these grandparents have for their grandchildren and the challenges they face caring for them.

Pamela Herd, Professor, Georgetown University

Grandparenting Children with Disabilities offers important insights about the lived experience of older adults who care for and care about their grandchildren…The authors skillfully integrate the stories they tell with consideration of macro social structural influences and life course perspectives… I recommend it highly!

Eva Kahana, Distinguished University Professor, Case Western Reserve

Madonna Harrington Meyer, PhD,  is University Professor at Syracuse University.  She is professor of sociology at the Maxwell School of Public Affairs, and Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence.  She is senior research associate at the Center for Policy Research and faculty affiliate at the Aging Studies Institute.  She is co-editor, with Ynesse Abdul-Malak of Grandparenting in the United States (2016).  She is co-editor with Elizabeth Daniele of Gerontology: Changes, Challenges, and Solutions (2016).  She is  author of Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs (2014), and co-author with Pamela Herd of Market Friendly or Family Friendly? The State and Gender Inequality in Old Age (2007), both of which won the Gerontological Society of America’s Kalish Book Award.   She is editor of Care Work: Gender, Labor, and the Welfare State (2000).  She has published over 50 scholarly articles; her work appears in leading journals including American Sociological Review, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Gender & Society, and Social Problems. Her research has been reported in the media including New York Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, and LA Times.  In 2016 she was named winner of the American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on Aging and the Life Course (SALC) Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award.  

Ynesse Abdul-Malak, RN, MPH, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Colgate University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) of Syracuse University. She is a seasoned researcher with  expertise in research involved different types of methodology on issues of racial and gender inequality, immigration, health disparity, and disability studies. She is co-editor, with Madonna Harrington Meyer of Grandparenting in the United States (2016).