ABSTRACT
O ne relatively unexamined consequence of the contemporarycrack cocaine episode is the increasing incidence ofgrandparents acting as surrogate parents for one of this society’s most vulnerable groups: cocaine-exposed infants and children. A national advocacy organization for older Americans estimates that 353,000 middle-age and older adults are rearing their grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, or nephews in households with no parents present (Rovner 1995). In 1997, the latest estimate available, approximately 3.9 million children or 5.5 percent of all children under age 18 lived in grandparent maintained households, a 76 percent increase since 1970 (Casper and Bryson 1998). The Current Population Report from the Bureau of the Census estimates that 1.5 million children reside in the grandparents’ homes with neither parent present (Bryson and Casper 1999). This trend is especially pronounced for younger children. In New York and California the number of children under three years old living with grandparents increased by 379 percent between 1986 and 1991, compared to a 54 percent increase in regular foster care. A significant share of these children were exposed to cocaine prenatally (Ross 1995). Proportionately more AfricanAmerican (12.3 percent) than European-American (3.7 percent) or Latino (5.6 percent) children live in households headed by grandparents (Jendrek 1994).
