Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society

Maxwell Sociologists Examine Grandparenting Children With Disabilities

Thursday, September 17, 2020, By News Staff
Share
facultyMaxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
book cover "Grandparenting Children with Disabilities"

“Grandparenting Children with Disabilities” (Springer Publishing, 2020)

In their new book, “Grandparenting Children with Disabilities” (Springer Publishing, 2020), professors Madonna Harrington Meyer of the Maxwell School and alumna Ynesse Abdul-Malak ’13 (M.A., sociology), Ph.D. ’17 (sociology) of Colgate University explore the complex dynamics of how U.S. grandparents, though often invisible, play a vital role in caring for children with disabilities, often placing their physical and financial well-being at increased risk.

Childcare in the U.S. is broadly unsupported by social programs and society at large. Grandparents of children, including those with disabilities, are often asked to assist with childcare in the U.S. due to greater schedule flexibility and at lower costs than private daycare. In their book, professors Harrington Meyer and Abdul-Malak examine the varied experiences of 50 grandparents raising children with disabilities, most of whom are women. These in-depth interviews reveal both the joys and the challenges of grandparenting children with disabilities, which can affect older Americans’ health, social, emotional and financial security. In some instances, grandparents are not able to exercise; in other instances, they incur debt to care for the children, or skip important medical care. Harrington Meyer and Abdul-Malak use cumulative inequality theory to analyze how a lack of social programs in the U.S. relates to increased demand for grandparent care work.

composite of Ynesse Abdul-Malak and Madonna Harrington Meyer's headshots

Ynesse Abdul-Malak and Madonna Harrington Meyer

Sociologist Madonna Harrington Meyer is a University Professor and Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence in sociology at the Maxwell School. She is also a faculty affiliate at the Aging Studies Institute, faculty research affiliate at the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and senior research associate at the Center for Policy Research. Her current research interests include older adults and food insecurity, grandparenting, care work, and older women and social security. She is the author of “Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs” (NYU Press, 2014), winner of the Gerontological Society of America Kalish Book Award in 2014. In 2016, Professor Harrington Meyer earned the American Sociological Association’s Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award for her work on aging and the life course.

Ynesse Abdul-Malak is an assistant professor in the sociology and anthropology department at Colgate University. When she was just 13 years old, Abdul-Malak left Haiti and immigrated to the United States. After earning an A.A.S. degree in nursing, she worked at an HIV/AIDS rehabilitation ward in Staten Island, New York. Abdul-Malak holds several degrees, including a master of public health from the American University of Beirut, and a master’s degree and doctoral degree in sociology from Syracuse University. Her research interests include older adults and parenting and the healthy migrant effect. Her research in the healthy migrant effect specifically analyzes the physical and mental well-being of immigrants who have left the Caribbean and Mexico to reside in the United States.

Harrington Meyer and Abdul-Malak co-edited “Grandparenting in the United States” (Baywood Press, 2016). They also co-authored “Single-Headed Family Economic Vulnerability and Reliance on Social Programs” (2015) in Public Policy & Aging Report.

For more information about “Grandparenting Children with Disabilities” please visit the publisher’s website.

Story by Chad Chambers, Ph.D. candidate in geography.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Good Reads: School of Education’s Summer Literacy Clinic Takes an Inquiry-Based Approach
    Tuesday, October 3, 2023, By Martin Walls
  • Maxwell Professor Kristy Buzard Explores Gender Disparities in Economics
    Tuesday, October 3, 2023, By News Staff
  • ‘Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching’ Co-Author to Give Public Talk and Faculty Workshop Oct. 11-12
    Tuesday, October 3, 2023, By News Staff
  • What’s Happening in CNY: Your Fun Fall Activity Guide
    Tuesday, October 3, 2023, By Christine Weber
  • Syracuse University Press Participating in Path to Open Program
    Friday, September 29, 2023, By Cristina Hatem

More In Health & Society

Maxwell Professor Kristy Buzard Explores Gender Disparities in Economics

Kristy Buzard, associate professor of economics in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, is part of a research team that recently received funding from the Women in Economics and Mathematics Research Consortium to investigate the mechanisms that contribute…

School of Education Faculty Publish ‘Lesson Study With Mathematics and Science Preservice Teachers’

“Lesson Study with Mathematics and Science Preservice Teachers: Finding the Form” (Routledge, 2023) is a new overview of the fundamentals of lesson study edited by School of Education Dean Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Professor Sharon Dotger and Jen Heckathorn G’22, director for…

International Drug Policy Academy Offers a Unique Opportunity for Students Interested in Addiction Studies

Needing one more class or an independent study to complete a master’s degree in public health, Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics student Emily Graham turned to Public Health Professor Dessa Bergen-Cico for advice and Bergen-Cico offered the opportunity…

Hendricks Chapel Dean, Chaplains and Students Attend Parliament of the World’s Religions

Representatives from Hendricks Chapel recently attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions, held in August in Chicago. This year’s theme was “A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom and Human Rights.” More than 7,000 participants from more than 95 countries, representing…

Roundtable: 3 School of Education Alumni Define ‘Human Thriving’ in the Context of Global Diversity

“Human thriving” is among the areas of distinctive excellence enumerated in the University’s 2023 Academic Strategic Plan. This concept is inspired by the words of Chancellor Erastus Haven. In 1871, he charged Syracuse students “to thrive here, to learn here,…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.