MULTIGENERATIONAL PATTERNS AND INTERNAL STRUCTURES IN FAMILIES IN WHICH GRANDPARENTS RAISE GRANDCHILDREN

''Skipped generation'' families, consisting of grandparents and grandc hildren with parents absent from the home, are frequently served in so cial work agencies. These families have unique multigenerational patte rns and family structures that are important for service providers to recognize. This paper uses a multigenerational systems perspective to highlight the diversity among grandparent-headed households. Twenty fa milies who were previously part of a larger study of stress, well-bein g, and life satisfaction among caregiving grandparents constituted a f ollow-up case study involving videotaped family interviews one year af ter the first study. Three families representing the range of diversit y among the twenty are described with accompanying genograms. Differen ces in structure, interactional processes, and links with prior genera tions are identified in each case. These examples reveal the strengths and vulnerabilities, as well as the diversity, of grandparent-headed families.