WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Howard Dubowitz, a Maryland pediatrician and researcher who specializes in child protection issues, knows how hard it can be to raise other people’s children.

Over the years while talking with grandparents and others who take on the role of guardian when parents struggle, “my heart went out to them – they were trying so hard,” said Dubowitz, trained to help treat children who have been abused or neglected.

The number of youth living with relatives or friends instead of their parents has risen nearly 18 percent in the past decade as a growing number of grandparents take on caring for their grandchildren, an analysis of government data shows.

More than 2.7 million children and teenagers have such “grandfamilies” or other alternative living arrangements, up from 2.2 million in 2000, according to a review of the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest 2010 data by The Annie E. Casey Foundation released on Wednesday.

Black children are more than twice as likely as other children to find themselves living without their parents, according to the children’s charity group, which advocates for situations where children are connected with their caregivers. About one in five black youth end up living with extended family for some time during their childhood, the group found.

Overall, about 9 percent of children and teenagers will live with relatives for at least three months at some point during their childhoods, data showed.

Even as such cross-family ties have grown for various reasons, the report shows that youth in need of new guardians are increasingly placed in the hands of often older caregivers who are more likely to be poor, single, less educated and unemployed.

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) – Howard Dubowitz, a Maryland pediatrician and researcher who specializes in child protection issues, knows how hard it can be to raise other people’s children.

Over the years while talking with grandparents and others who take on the role of guardian when parents struggle, “my heart went out to them – they were trying so hard,” said Dubowitz, trained to help treat children who have been abused or neglected.

The number of youth living with relatives or friends instead of their parents has risen nearly 18 percent in the past decade as a growing number of grandparents take on caring for their grandchildren, an analysis of government data shows.

More than 2.7 million children and teenagers have such “grandfamilies” or other alternative living arrangements, up from 2.2 million in 2000, according to a review of the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest 2010 data by The Annie E. Casey Foundation released on Wednesday.

Black children are more than twice as likely as other children to find themselves living without their parents, according to the children’s charity group, which advocates for situations where children are connected with their caregivers. About one in five black youth end up living with extended family for some time during their childhood, the group found.

Overall, about 9 percent of children and teenagers will live with relatives for at least three months at some point during their childhoods, data showed.

Even as such cross-family ties have grown for various reasons, the report shows that youth in need of new guardians are increasingly placed in the hands of often older caregivers who are more likely to be poor, single, less educated and unemployed.