Grandparent caregiving role in ethnically diverse families.

The grandparenting caregiving role in ethnically diverse families has not been well defined and described in the present literature. The goals of this article are to (a) synthesize what is known about the grandparent caregiving role in ethnically diverse families in the context of the African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American families and (b) identify gaps in knowledge to guide future research, education, and practice in this area of study. A narrative approach was used to review the literature from 1980 to 2003 and a descriptive summary of the literature is provided with a discussion of the research methods and salient findings.