over the past 40 years, the share o

over the past 40 years, the share of U.S. children living in a grandparent's household has climbed steadily, more than doubling from 3 percent in 1970 to 7 percent in 2010.3 Researchers noted spikes in the number of children living with grandparents that coincided with the crack cocaine epidemic in the late 1980s and the recent "Great Recession" between 2007 and 2009.4 In 2010, more than half of children (54 percent) who were living with grandparents were being raised mainly by a grandparent who reported having primary responsibility for most of the child's basic needs