COUNTING ON GRANDMOTHERS - BLACK MOTHERS AND FATHERS RELIANCE ON GRANDMOTHERS FOR PARENTING SUPPORT

This article examines Black young adult parents' reliance on grandmoth ers for parenting support. The sample of 487 parents, 18 to 34 years o ld, was drawn from the National Survey of Black Americans. Parents mos t often nominated grandmothers as the person they could count on for c hild care assistance and parental guidance. Mothers and fathers did no t differ in their overall nominations of grandmothers. However, mother s were more likely than fathers to rely on grandmothers for both child care assistance and parenting advice. Fathers were more likely than m others to rely on grandmothers for child care assistance only. Factors affecting parents' reliance on grandmothers for parenting support var ied by gender. For mothers, family closeness, the number of generation s in multigeneration family lineages, residence in the rural South, an d family proximity were related to increased reliance on grandmothers for parenting support. Among fathers, being employed and family proxim ity increased their reliance on grandmothers.