Intersectionality: Reframing grandparenting in small towns and rural areas through an intersectional lens

Increasing understanding of the dynamics surrounding grandparenting has never been more important in the US as about 7.8 million children live in some form of grandfamily caregiving. An intersectional lens can deepen... [ view full abstract ]

Increasing understanding of the dynamics surrounding grandparenting has never been more important in the US as about 7.8 million children live in some form of grandfamily caregiving. An intersectional lens can deepen understanding of identity formation as a child develops self in relation to factors including culture, ethnicity, religion, gender, social class and family. Utilizing an intersectional lens to assess interconnectedness across human, social and economic factors has the capacity to increase understanding and perhaps encapsulate factors that empower and liberate as well as those that oppress and carry burdens of inequalities in the lives of children.

Children develop not in a vacuum but in complex environments, a multi-dimensional world of human factors and social dynamics that shape lived realities. Examining mutual constructions of factors such as gender, race, class, and family values is important in designing future social services and practices to serve children in various forms of nuclear, kinship, and grandparent families.

This presentation promotes understanding intergenerational care of children from an intersectional perspective. Intersectionality dates back about more than thirty years as a perspective originally in demarginalization of race and gender and has expanded to interconnections of many human, social, and political factors.

Objectives
A. To define intersectionality and its applicability to understand and assess influences in the lives of children in intergenerational care

B. To report trends of intergenerational caregiving with emphasis on small towns and rural areas

C. To identify positive and negative influences intersecting across human and social systems in intergenerational caregiving

Methodology
Existing data reported by Generations United, US Census, and other state reports, will be utilized to assess laws and services for intergenerational caregiving among the 20 least densely populated states. Outcomes include state rankings and services.

Presentation
PowerPoint, Case Examples, Handouts