There has been an increase in the number of children being raised by their grandparents. As these grandparents take on the primary parenting responsibilities of their grandchildren, they are being deprived of a wholesome and more typical grandparent-grandchild relationship. Many of these children are born to drug-addicted parents or to parents who are or have been incarcerated. Many others are the children of single teenagers or parents who are divorced or deceased. This study examined: (1) the emotional adjustment of black grandparents raising their grandchildren, and (2) the needs and experiences of grandparents, parents and children in disrupted families so that planners of social policy can better address the legal, social, and psychological needs of all the family members. Fourteen black grandparents (13 grandmothers and 1 grandfather) between the ages of 45 and 70 and who had been parenting at least one grandchild for a minimum of 2 years were interviewed concerning the impact of such an arrangement on their own lives, the lives of their children, and the lives of their grandchildren. These subjects were recruited from the Grandparents as Parents (GAP) support group. Each subject obtained formal or informal custody of their grandchildren because at least one of the biological parents of the children was addicted to "crack" cocaine and was unable to function as a parent. Of particular interest to this study was how the resumption of the parenting role was affecting these grandparents developmentally. Results show that these grandparents are making great personal sacrifices to care for their neglected or abandoned grandchildren at a time in their lives when they expected to lay down the burdens of jobs and child rearing. (Contains 67 references.) (MOK)