Bridging Gaps in Grandparenting: Kinship Navigator Programs Mitigate Sociodemographic Disparities in Caregiving Challenges of Informal Kinship Placement: A Latent Class Analysis

This study investigates how Kinship Navigator Programs (KNPs) help mitigate disparities in caregiving challenges faced by informal kinship caregivers (especially grandparents) of maltreated children in the United States. Using Latent Class Analysis, the research identifies three distinct patterns of caregiving challenges: financial, child's behavioral/emotional health, and intergenerational family dynamics. KNPs are shown to effectively reduce disparities related to age and sex in financial strain and racial and sex disparities in intergenerational family dynamics, but do not fully address financial challenges for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) caregivers or intergenerational challenges for older caregivers.