ABSTRACT
There are more grandparents and great-grandparents in the late 1990s than ever before (Uhlenberg, 1996). Even with lowered birth rates, life-span increases mean more people are living long enough to see their children, and even their grandchildren, reproduce (Bengtson & Achenbaum, 1993; Uhlenberg, 1996). In a recent demographic study of a nationally representative sample, it was reported that 80% of the families in the United States contain three generations, and 16% contain four or more (Szinovacz, 1998). Of course, not all grandparents are very old; some people in their 30s become grandparents, and it is not difficult to imagine the senior generation in a four-generation family being 50-somethings who are employed in the workforce (in fact, we know of such “seniors”). We also have known people who became first-time grandparents when they were well into their 70s.
