Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Synthetic Review and Theoretical Model for Interventions

The number of custodial grandparents has increased significantly over the past decade. Building on Hayslip's and Kaminski's comprehensive review of the literature on custodial grandparenting, we conducted an updated review of the literature, in particular peer-reviewed journal articles published since 2004. We have developed a conceptual model to contribute to understanding the causes and consequences of custodial grandparenting, using the stress-coping framework while highlighting the emerging issues related to contemporary grandfamilies such as cultural and ethnic heterogeneity in grandfamilies. We also emphasized loss, grief, and trauma among grandfamilies and provided the implications for effective public and community health programs.