University of North Texas

Grandparents who are the primary caregivers of grandchildren face a variety of challenges that parents may not, says  Bert Hayslip, right, Regents professor of psychology, a  lead investigator  for a national four-year study known as Project COPE (Caring for Others as a Positive Experience).

Project COPE is being funded by a $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research, a division of the National Institutes of Health.

More than 500 grandparents in California, Maryland, Ohio and Texas will participate in Project COPE. Each grandparent will be randomly assigned to one of three interventions — learning coping skills to handle the demands of raising grandchildren or participating in a support group with other custodial grandparents.

According to the latest U.S. Census figures, approximately 2.5 million grandparents - mostly grandmothers - were responsible for providing shelter, food, clothing and other basic needs of grandchildren younger than age 18 who were living with them. In Texas, 7.6 percent of children were living in grandparent-headed homes.

Hayslip, who has studied grandparents’ adjustment and satisfaction with parenting roles for more than 20 years, received approximately $560,000 from the $2.5 million grant to recruit 140 grandparents from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to participate.

• Join the study, or refer someone to do so: contact Hayslip or 940-565-2675.

Grandparents in the study must be raising grandchildren who are 4 to 12 years old in a so-called skipped generation family. Grandparents will be compensated.

Hayslip says “skipped-generation” families are formed from stressful situations that impact both the grandparents and the grandchildren. The purpose of Project COPE is to assist participating grandparents and grandchildren cope with these life transitions.