Counting on Grandmothers: Black Mothers' and Fathers' Reliance on Grandmothers for Parenting Support

Abstract

This article examines Black young adult parents' reliance on grandmothers for parenting support. The sample of 487 parents, 18 to 34 years old, was drawn from the National Survey of Black Americans. Parents most often nominated grandmothers as the person they could count on for child care assistance and parental guidance. Mothers and fathers did not differ in their overall nominations of grandmothers. However, mothers were more likely than fathers to rely on grandmothers for both child care assistance and parenting advice. Fathers were more likely than mothers to rely on grandmothers for child care assistance only. Factors affecting parents' reliance on grandmothers for parenting support varied by gender. For mothers, family closeness, the number of generations in multigeneration family lineages, residence in the rural South, and family proximity were related to increased reliance on grandmothers for parenting support. Among fathers, being employed and family proximity increased their reliance on grandmothers.