Young adult carers in the UK – new evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

October 28, 2022

Summary:

Despite growing interest in young adult carers, little is known about trends in prevalence of caregiving among young adults aged 16–29. Furthermore, few studies have so far investigated demographic, health, and socioeconomic inequalities in the duration of care among young carers as well as demographic differences in caregiving characteristics. Using data from 11 waves of the nationally representative UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–2021), we first estimated the prevalence of caregiving among 16–29 years-old adults at each wave. Results show that about 9% of those aged 16–29 provided care, and that this prevalence remained stable throughout the 2010s. Then, selecting respondents who participated for three waves of more, we assessed demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics associated with duration of care using ordinal regression models. Almost 52% of carers cared at two or more waves. Compared to non-carers, those who cared had more disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, were from ethnic minorities and reported poorer health, particularly if they cared at two or more waves. Finally, focusing on carers, we tested differences by sex, age, and urbanicity in care relationships, intensity, and duration. Overall, women and those aged 25–29 cared for longer hours, for more people, and for more years than men and younger carers respectively. Put together, these findings provide an up-to-date description of young carers in the 2010s in the UK

Published in

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Volume

Volume: 19

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114076

ISSN

16617827

Subjects

Notes

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


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