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Young Carers: Prevention, Intervention, Services and Outcomes—What Works?
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Young Carers: Prevention, Intervention, Services and Outcomes—What Works?

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 7921

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Saul Becker

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Health and Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M15 6BX, UK
Interests: young carers; young caregivers; young adult carers; carers; informal care; children and families; child outcomes; child and adolescent mental health; psychosocial interventions; social work; community mental health; education; social policy; social care

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is a growing body of international literature on young carers and young adult carers—people under 18 (young carers) or aged 18–24 (young adult carers) who have unpaid caregiving responsibilities for other family members or friends. Much of this literature is research-driven, with other sources of evidence, including young carers’ own accounts, policy and practice guidance, news reports, evaluation studies, media coverage and so on.

In this Special Issue, we invite submissions that examine, report on, discuss or assess either specific or wider approaches, services and interventions that are being used with young carers/young adult carers and their families. What services, approaches or interventions are focused on prevention—and what are they trying to prevent? What services, approaches or interventions are aimed at supporting young carers as children and/or carers? What are the aims of these services and interventions and what is the theory of change that they are built upon? Who has (co-)designed these services and interventions and for what purpose? What is the evidence that they deliver beneficial outcomes for young carers/young adult carers (and their families)? What works, why does it work, where does it work and who does it work with? These are some of the questions that we aim to address in this Special Issue.

In this Special Issue we focus for the first time on bringing together submissions that are concerned with these and other questions and specifically the question of ‘what works’? Articles where researchers/academics have worked with policy makers, practitioners, service providers, and/or young carers/young adult carers in the design, delivery or evaluation of services and interventions are especially welcome. By drawing together this research in one place we intend for this Special Issue to inform the future development of policy, practice and services for young carers/young adult carers internationally.

Prof. Dr. Saul Becker
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • young carers
  • young adult carers
  • young caregivers
  • vulnerable children
  • children and adolescents
  • child outcomes
  • caregiving responsibilities
  • family support
  • prevention strategies
  • psychosocial interventions
  • evaluation
  • prevention
  • intervention studies
  • theory of change
  • social policy
  • children’s services
  • family support

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 224 KiB  
Article
Moments of Care: Perceptions of Young Carers and Day-to-Day Well-Being
by Melinda S. Kavanaugh, Matthew J. Zawadzki, Kayla T. Johnson and Miranda R. Boville
Healthcare 2025, 13(3), 292; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13030292 - 31 Jan 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 874
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Over 5 million youth under the age of 19 provide daily, hands-on care to an ill or injured family member across the United States. Yet how these young carers perceive the care they deliver in the moment, and how these perceptions relate [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Over 5 million youth under the age of 19 provide daily, hands-on care to an ill or injured family member across the United States. Yet how these young carers perceive the care they deliver in the moment, and how these perceptions relate to well-being, is unexplored, particularly in complex neurological conditions. This paper presents initial data on young carers for a family member with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Methods: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) was used to measure perceptions of care in the moments of care and the cognitive and emotional states of the young carers during those moments. Young carers (n = 15) aged 10–19 were followed for seven days, completing assessments three times per day, which provided 260 total measurements. Young carers reported frequently engaging in caregiving (~39% of assessments). Results: The results indicated that it was not simply performing a caregiving task that related to outcomes, but rather how caregiving moments were perceived that mattered. Caregiving moments perceived as more fulfilling resulted in young carers feeling less discontent and more focused, whereas caregiving moments perceived as lacking resources predicted more discontent and distress. Exploratory analyses highlighted the potential for burden for young carers. They reported high levels of worry when they were not around the care recipient, with this worry predicting feeling more discontent and distressed. Conclusions: Young carers are deeply involved in care and perceive care differently across moments, both positive and negative. These initial data can be used to develop targeting support programs in the moment of care, potentially lessening the negative impacts of care. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Young Carers: Prevention, Intervention, Services and Outcomes—What Works?)
10 pages, 198 KiB  
Article
Identifying Caregiving Youth and Associated Mental Health Concerns in a Medical Clinic Setting
by Elizabeth R. Pulgaron, Gabriella Llano, Gabriela Guevara, Tara Kenworthy LaMarca, Gwen Wurm, Lisa Gwynn, Connie Siskowski and Julia Belkowitz
Healthcare 2025, 13(3), 255; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13030255 - 28 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1286
Abstract
Background/ Objectives: Despite the high estimated prevalence and the documented impact of caregiving on children, there is no systematic process to identify or study caregiving youth in the healthcare setting. The aim of this study was to pilot screening in school-based clinics to [...] Read more.
Background/ Objectives: Despite the high estimated prevalence and the documented impact of caregiving on children, there is no systematic process to identify or study caregiving youth in the healthcare setting. The aim of this study was to pilot screening in school-based clinics to identify caregiving youth and their associated mental health outcomes. Methods: From March 2021 to March 2022, ninth- to twelfth-grade students were surveyed regarding caregiving and validated mental health screeners during intake at three Title 1 school-based health clinics in Miami, FL. Results: Thirty-nine percent of participants self-identified as caregivers. The most common caregiving tasks were cleaning (n = 20, 50%), keeping company (n = 19, 48%), shopping/cooking (n = 14, 35%), dressing (n = 13, 33%), mobility support (n = 12, 30%), and medical support (n = 11, 28%). Compared to their non-caregiving counterparts, caregiving youth had higher scores on mental health screeners, and caregivers were more likely to endorse clinically significant levels of depression (p = 0.050). Conclusions: Screening in the healthcare system was effective at identifying caregiving youth in school-based clinics whose mental health may be impacted by caregiving responsibilities. Pediatricians should actively screen for both caregiving and mental health concerns. Future studies are needed to ensure the caregiving screening tool is reliable and valid for broad-scale provider use. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Young Carers: Prevention, Intervention, Services and Outcomes—What Works?)
13 pages, 267 KiB  
Article
Adolescent Young Carers Who Provide Care to Siblings
by Rosita Brolin, Elizabeth Hanson, Lennart Magnusson, Feylyn Lewis, Tom Parkhouse, Valentina Hlebec, Sara Santini, Renske Hoefman, Agnes Leu and Saul Becker
Healthcare 2024, 12(3), 316; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12030316 - 25 Jan 2024
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2777
Abstract
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 [...] Read more.
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. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Young Carers: Prevention, Intervention, Services and Outcomes—What Works?)

Review

Jump to: Research

19 pages, 2216 KiB  
Review
Young Carers in Early Childhood—How Are Young Carers Represented in Broader Literature and What Factors Influence Dominant Representations of Young Carers in Early Childhood in the UK?
by Carly Ellicott, Sayyeda Ume Rubab, Andy McGowan, Beth Neale, Ali Bidaran, Felicity Dewsbery, Alyson Norman and Helen Lloyd
Healthcare 2025, 13(3), 280; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13030280 - 30 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1402
Abstract
Contextualization of young carers in early childhood is complex. Biopsychosocial impacts of young caregiving are receiving growing interest, yet the voice and experience of society’s youngest carers (0–5 years) remain absent from the literature. This scoping review explores representation of young carers in [...] Read more.
Contextualization of young carers in early childhood is complex. Biopsychosocial impacts of young caregiving are receiving growing interest, yet the voice and experience of society’s youngest carers (0–5 years) remain absent from the literature. This scoping review explores representation of young carers in their early years (0–5 years), presented as part of a broader program of PhD research undertaken by the lead author. Aiming to influence systematic change in the way young carers are perceived and supported in society, further research is recommended. This will serve to better inform whole family support strategies in the context of young carer policy and practice. This review has been undertaken following JBI guidance for scoping reviews. A comprehensive literature search included publications dated 2014–2024 in Scopus, PubMed, PsycINFO, Eric, Web of Science, and Carers Trust and NSPCC websites. The overall search yielded no studies which met the inclusion criteria. Results were discussed with knowledge users, and content experts with lived experience of caring in early childhood, at all stages of the review process. The absence of relevant research highlights a significant gap in knowledge regarding the way in which the lived experiences of young carers in early childhood are represented and understood. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Young Carers: Prevention, Intervention, Services and Outcomes—What Works?)
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