Dissertation Abstract: Michael Twyman

THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF AFRICAN AMERICAN GRANDFATHERS RAISING THEIR GRANDCHILDREN

According to the most recent US Census statistics, there is an estimated 2.5 million grandparents raising their grandchildren in the United States without the children's parents present in the household. In Indianapolis, the figure constitutes nearly 9,000 households. There are a disproportionately higher number of African American grandparents that are primary caregivers to their grandchildren. However, 6 percent of this population is grandfathers who are raising their grandchildren, while some 40 percent of the grandmothers are married.

The research is a compilation of interviews with ten African American grandfathers living in Indianapolis who were raising their grandchildren in their households without the presence of the grandchildren's parents. These men were either married or widowed and have either formal custody of their grandchildren through adoption, foster care/ kinship care, court-appointed guardianship or informal living arrangements. The objective of the research was to capture the lived experiences of these grandfathers who were fulfilling their caregiving roles. Thus, the research methodology used was reflective of the phenomenological paradigm of inquiry.

These interviews were conducted mostly in the homes of the grandfathers, or at their workplaces. Each interview was tape-recorded, using a question guide. The voice recordings were transcribed subsequently into written electronic text by a professional company. Themes about the grandparent caregiving role emerged from a coding process that dissected and analyzed each interview. These recurring themes were documented and substantiated by grandfather's quotes, and included the following dimensions: nature and quality of grandfather/grandchild relationships, formal and informal custody, spousal relationships, support systems and spirituality, parental involvement, discipline, school and extra-curricular activities/special needs, finances, health condition/mortality, housing/spatial relationships and personal time.

Given the richness and thick description of these grandfather's private lives and the generous sharing of their roles as grandparent caregivers, suggestions for future research on the subject of custodial grandparenting were presented in the context of grandfathers particularly. This work may be especially beneficial to the social work field, as there is a dearth of literature on the role of grandfathers in family systems currently available.