Young Carers' Identification: Comparing Adolescents' and Parents' Perspectives

IF 1.8 4区医学 Q2 PEDIATRICS

Child Care Health and Development Pub Date : 2024-11-20 DOI:10.1111/cch.70006

Jade Pilato, Géraldine Dorard, Clizia Cincidda, Aurélie Untas

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Young carers are children or adolescents who provide significant care to another family member who has an illness or disability. This situation impacts their physical and mental health, and their social and school life. Nonetheless, this vulnerable population is often covert, which makes YCs' identification a major challenge. One of the methods in the literature to identify them consists of obtaining the adolescent's report of a relative's illness or disability, coupled with the standardized psychometric evaluation of their level of care. To date, no research had compared adolescents' and parents' perspectives using this method, while this would enable to gain insights on YCs' identification. The objective of this study was to compare parents' and adolescents' reports on the identification of an ill or disabled relative within the household, and adolescents' levels of caring activities.

Methods

Survey data were collected from 776 adolescents (mean age = 12.76 years; 55.50% of females) and one of their parents (mean age = 44.31 years; 83.76% of females). They completed questionnaires evaluating their sociodemographic characteristics, illnesses or disabilities within their household, and adolescents' levels of caring activities (MACA–YC 18). Cohen's κ for interrater agreement, Student's t-tests and chi-square tests of independence were performed for child–parent responses comparisons.

Results

Fewer adolescents reported that there was an ill or disabled relative within the household compared with their parents. Only 27.56% of the dyads agreed both on the person who was ill or disabled and the illness or disability. The dyads were more often in agreement when the ill or disabled relative had a serious somatic illness and was the mother. On the other hand, adolescents reported engaging in higher levels of caregiving activities than indicated by their parents' assessments.

Conclusion

This study highlights the difference of perception between parents and adolescents both on illness and disability reports, and on adolescents' levels of caring activities. These two points of view seem complementary, suggesting that combining adolescents' and parents' perspectives can aid in better identifying young carers.

查看原文本刊更多论文

年轻照顾者的认同：比较青少年和父母的观点。

背景：年幼照护者是指为患有疾病或残疾的其他家庭成员提供重要照护的儿童或青少年。这种情况影响了他们的身心健康以及社交和学校生活。然而，这一弱势人群往往具有隐蔽性，这使得识别幼托者成为一大挑战。文献中的一种识别方法是获取青少年对其亲属疾病或残疾的报告，并对其护理水平进行标准化的心理测量评估。迄今为止，还没有研究使用这种方法对青少年和家长的观点进行比较，而这将有助于深入了解对青年关怀者的识别。本研究旨在比较父母和青少年对家中患病或残疾亲属的识别报告，以及青少年的照顾活动水平：研究收集了 776 名青少年（平均年龄为 12.76 岁，女性占 55.50%）及其父母（平均年龄为 44.31 岁，女性占 83.76%）的调查数据。他们填写了调查问卷，评估他们的社会人口特征、家庭中的疾病或残疾情况以及青少年的照顾活动水平（MACA-YC 18）。在比较孩子和家长的回答时，采用了科恩κ（Cohen's κ for interrater agreement）、学生t检验和秩和检验（chi-square tests of independence）：与父母相比，报告家中有患病或残疾亲属的青少年人数较少。只有 27.56% 的父母双方对患病或残疾的人以及患病或残疾的程度达成一致。如果患病或残疾的亲属患有严重的躯体疾病，并且是母亲，则双方的意见更容易达成一致。另一方面，青少年参与照顾活动的程度高于父母的评估：本研究强调了父母和青少年在疾病和残疾报告以及青少年护理活动水平方面的认知差异。这两种观点似乎是互补的，表明结合青少年和家长的观点有助于更好地识别年轻的照护者。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Child Care Health and Development 医学-小儿科

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

5.30%

发文量

136

审稿时长

4-8 weeks

期刊介绍： Child: care, health and development is an international, peer-reviewed journal which publishes papers dealing with all aspects of the health and development of children and young people. We aim to attract quantitative and qualitative research papers relevant to people from all disciplines working in child health. We welcome studies which examine the effects of social and environmental factors on health and development as well as those dealing with clinical issues, the organization of services and health policy. We particularly encourage the submission of studies related to those who are disadvantaged by physical, developmental, emotional and social problems. The journal also aims to collate important research findings and to provide a forum for discussion of global child health issues.