Adolescent young carers who provide care to siblings

Brolin, Rosita (author), Hanson, Elizabeth (author), Magnusson, Lennart (author), Lewis, Feylyn Mercedies (author), Parkhouse, Tom (author), Hlebec, Valentina (author), Santini, Sara (author), Hoefman, Renske (author), Leu, Agnes (author), Becker, Saul (author)

A child’s disability, long-term illness, or mental ill-health is known to affect siblings’ health, social life, school engagement, and quality of life. This article addresses a research gap by its focus on young sibling carers and the impact of providing care to a sibling. A cross-national survey study was conducted in 2018–2019 (Italy, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK) to examine the incidence of adolescent sibling 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 1444 of them provided care to family members with health-related conditions. Out of these, 286 were identified as Sibling Carers and 668 as Parent Carers, while 181 had both sibling(s) and parent(s) with health-related conditions, and thus were identified as Sibling–Parent Carers. Sibling Carers and Sibling–Parent Carers carried out higher levels of caring activities compared to Parent Carers. They reported both positive aspects of caring, such as increased maturity, and negative aspects, such as mental ill-health, impact on schooling and a lack of support. To reduce the negative aspects of a sibling carer role, it is important to recognise them and to implement early preventive measures and formal support.

• Language: English
• Keywords: sibling carer, young carer, school outcomes, mental health, well-being, quality of life, support
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 1-13
• Numbering: Vol. 12, issue 3, [article no.] 316
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-154210
• UDC: 364-47-053.6
• ISSN on article: 2227-9032
• DOI: 10.3390/healthcare12030316
• COBISS.SI-ID: 182808579
• Publication date in RUL: 01.02.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Healthcare
• Shortened title: Healthcare
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• ISSN: 2227-9032
• COBISS.SI-ID: 520110873

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: dolgotrajna oskrba, najstniki, bratje in sestre, duševno zdravje, dobro počutje

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Funding programme: European Commission
• Project number: 754702
• Name: Psychosocial Support for Promoting Mental Health and Well-being among Adolescent Young Carers in Europe
• Acronym: ME-WE