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Publication #FAR6010

 

Youth Caregivers in the U.S. – An Overview 1

Suzanna Smith2

Figure 1. 
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Almost everyone I know has a story to tell about caregiving. More and more, baby boomers at midlife find ourselves caring for our aging parents in addition to our children.

But there is one group of caregivers that until recently has gone unnoticed—children. Although there are plenty of studies about adult family caregivers, the first large-scale study of children providing care was released in September of 2005.

Through surveys and interviews with random samples of child caregivers and their parents, researchers found that there are over 1.3 million child caregivers between the ages of 8 and 18 (National Alliance for Caregiving and United Hospital Fund, 2005).

Nearly 40% of child caregivers are ages 12-15, and around 30% are 16-18; about 30% fall in the youngest age group surveyed, ages 8-11. Most (72%) are taking care of a parent or grandparent, usually their mother or grandmother. Most of the care recipients are age 40 and older and are suffering from chronic illnesses, such as dementia, heart, lung or kidney disease, arthritis, and diabetes (NAC/UHF, 2005).

Over half of child caregivers help with at least one activity of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, getting in and out of beds and chairs, toileting, and feeding. Nearly all these children help with shopping, doing chores, and preparing meals. At least three-fourths of child caregivers are not providing care alone—someone else helps, too (NAC/UHF, 2005).

As we better understand children as caregivers, we can also better identify how to meet their unique needs.

Listening, learning, and living together: it's the science of life. "Family Album" is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, and of WUFT-FM. If you'd like to learn more, please visit our website at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

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Reference

National Alliance for Caregiving and United Hospital Fund. (2005). Young caregivers in the U.S. Retrieved September 20, 2005, from http://www.caregiving.org/data/youngcaregivers.pdf

Footnotes

1.

This document is FAR6010, one of a series of the Family Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Broadcast as program 274 and published February 2009. Reviewed March 2012. In the interest of time and/or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Suzanna Smith, associate professor, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.