Adolescent Young Carers Who Provide Help and Support to Friends
Prior studies emphasize the value of friends’ support for children/adolescents who have a disability or suffer from mental ill-health or a long-term illness. However, few studies have explored how a caring role affects those young friend carers themselves. This paper addresses a gap in the research...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Healthcare |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/11/21/2876 |
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| author | Rosita Brolin Elizabeth Hanson Lennart Magnusson Feylyn Lewis Tom Parkhouse Valentina Hlebec Sara Santini Renske Hoefman Agnes Leu Saul Becker |
| author_facet | Rosita Brolin Elizabeth Hanson Lennart Magnusson Feylyn Lewis Tom Parkhouse Valentina Hlebec Sara Santini Renske Hoefman Agnes Leu Saul Becker |
| author_sort | Rosita Brolin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Prior studies emphasize the value of friends’ support for children/adolescents who have a disability or suffer from mental ill-health or a long-term illness. However, few studies have explored how a caring role affects those young friend carers themselves. This paper addresses a gap in the research by focusing on this hitherto neglected group of young carers to explore the impact of providing care to friends. An online survey was employed for a cross-national study conducted in 2018–2019 in Sweden, Italy, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom to examine the incidence of adolescent young friend carers, the extent of care they provide, and their self-reported health, well-being, and school situation. The survey was completed by 7146 adolescents, aged 15–17, and 1121 of them provided care to a friend with a health-related condition, most frequently mental ill-health. They carried out high levels of caring activities, and a quarter of them also provided care to a family member. They experienced both positive and negative aspects of caring. Nevertheless, in comparison with adolescents who provided care to family members, they reported more health problems, with a dominance of mental ill-health, and they received lower levels of support. Since adolescent friends play a valuable role for young people with health-related conditions, especially mental ill-health, it is important to find ways of optimizing their caring experiences in order that those adolescents who choose to care for a friend can do so without it having a negative impact on their own mental health, well-being, and life situation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T11:30:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c7483ed66761404db7e16eaa32217dbc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-9032 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T11:30:02Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Healthcare |
| spelling | doaj.art-c7483ed66761404db7e16eaa32217dbc2023-11-10T15:03:52ZengMDPI AGHealthcare2227-90322023-11-011121287610.3390/healthcare11212876Adolescent Young Carers Who Provide Help and Support to FriendsRosita Brolin0Elizabeth Hanson1Lennart Magnusson2Feylyn Lewis3Tom Parkhouse4Valentina Hlebec5Sara Santini6Renske Hoefman7Agnes Leu8Saul Becker9Department Health and Caring Sciences, Linnaeus University, SE-39182 Kalmar, SwedenDepartment Health and Caring Sciences, Linnaeus University, SE-39182 Kalmar, SwedenDepartment Health and Caring Sciences, Linnaeus University, SE-39182 Kalmar, SwedenSchool of Nursing 179, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, 461 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37240, USASchool of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QQ, UKFaculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, SloveniaCentre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing, IRCCS INRCA-National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing, 60124 Ancona, ItalyThe Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP), Postbus 16164, 2500 BD The Hague, The NetherlandsInstitute for Biomedical Ethics, Science and Medical Faculty, University of Basel, 4001 Basel, SwitzerlandSchool of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QQ, UKPrior studies emphasize the value of friends’ support for children/adolescents who have a disability or suffer from mental ill-health or a long-term illness. However, few studies have explored how a caring role affects those young friend carers themselves. This paper addresses a gap in the research by focusing on this hitherto neglected group of young carers to explore the impact of providing care to friends. An online survey was employed for a cross-national study conducted in 2018–2019 in Sweden, Italy, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom to examine the incidence of adolescent young friend carers, the extent of care they provide, and their self-reported health, well-being, and school situation. The survey was completed by 7146 adolescents, aged 15–17, and 1121 of them provided care to a friend with a health-related condition, most frequently mental ill-health. They carried out high levels of caring activities, and a quarter of them also provided care to a family member. They experienced both positive and negative aspects of caring. Nevertheless, in comparison with adolescents who provided care to family members, they reported more health problems, with a dominance of mental ill-health, and they received lower levels of support. Since adolescent friends play a valuable role for young people with health-related conditions, especially mental ill-health, it is important to find ways of optimizing their caring experiences in order that those adolescents who choose to care for a friend can do so without it having a negative impact on their own mental health, well-being, and life situation.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/11/21/2876young friend careryoung carerschool outcomeshealthwell-being |
| spellingShingle | Rosita Brolin Elizabeth Hanson Lennart Magnusson Feylyn Lewis Tom Parkhouse Valentina Hlebec Sara Santini Renske Hoefman Agnes Leu Saul Becker Adolescent Young Carers Who Provide Help and Support to Friends Healthcare young friend carer young carer school outcomes health well-being |
| title | Adolescent Young Carers Who Provide Help and Support to Friends |
| title_full | Adolescent Young Carers Who Provide Help and Support to Friends |
| title_fullStr | Adolescent Young Carers Who Provide Help and Support to Friends |
| title_full_unstemmed | Adolescent Young Carers Who Provide Help and Support to Friends |
| title_short | Adolescent Young Carers Who Provide Help and Support to Friends |
| title_sort | adolescent young carers who provide help and support to friends |
| topic | young friend carer young carer school outcomes health well-being |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/11/21/2876 |
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