All rights reservediii I dedicate this dissertation to my wife, Pamela and daughters, Jasmine, Rebekah, and Misha, a family so caring and supportive that it made the considerable effort expended in completion of this work seem all the more gratifying. The term "grandfamily" was coined by this researcher to identify families where children are raised by grandparents."Supergrands" are the grandparents and "grandkin" are children in these families. Supergrands who raise their grandkin tend to have elevated levels of stress that negatively impact their well-being.