Disability and Health Unit, School of Population and Global Health, Centre for Health Equity, The University of Melbourne, Level 4, 207, Bouverie Street, MelbourneParkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
Centre of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2023 Oct 5;13(1):16788. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-43464-5.
Informal care can exert adverse effects on the mental health of young people. Bullying victimisation is an important determinant of mental disorders. Young carers are at elevated risk of bullying. We quantify the mental health effects of informal care among Australian adolescents and the extent to which these effects are transmitted through school bullying. We used data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Participants were classified as non-carers, light carers (caring for < 10 h/week) and moderate-to-heavy carers (caring for 10 + h/week). Mental health was measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). Using a counterfactual approach to mediation analysis, total effects (TE) of informal care on mental health were decomposed into natural direct effects (NDE-mental health effects not transmitted through school bullying) and natural indirect effects (NIE-mental health effects transmitted through school bullying). The TE of informal caring was 0.71 (95%CI - 0.03, 1.49) for light carers and 1.72 (95%CI 0.45, 3.02) for moderate-to-heavy carers. While school bullying explained 27% of the TE among moderate-to-heavy carers (NIE: 0.46; 95%CI 0.12, 0.91) there was weak evidence of mediation for light carers. Our findings indicate that the mental health effects of moderate-to-heavy caregiving can be reduced by school bullying interventions.
非正规照料可能对年轻人的心理健康产生不良影响。受欺凌是精神障碍的一个重要决定因素。年轻的照顾者面临更高的欺凌风险。我们量化了澳大利亚青少年非正规照料对心理健康的影响，以及这些影响通过学校欺凌传播的程度。我们使用了来自澳大利亚儿童纵向研究的数据。参与者被分为非照顾者、轻度照顾者（照顾时间<10 小时/周）和中度至重度照顾者（照顾时间 10 小时/周及以上）。心理健康使用 Kessler 心理困扰量表（K10）进行衡量。通过对中介分析的反事实方法，将非正规照料对心理健康的总效应（TE）分解为自然直接效应（NDE-未通过学校欺凌传播的心理健康效应）和自然间接效应（NIE-通过学校欺凌传播的心理健康效应）。轻度照顾者的非正规照料 TE 为 0.71（95%CI-0.03，1.49），中度至重度照顾者的 TE 为 1.72（95%CI 0.45，3.02）。虽然学校欺凌解释了中度至重度照顾者 TE 的 27%（NIE：0.46；95%CI 0.12，0.91），但对轻度照顾者的中介作用证据较弱。我们的研究结果表明，通过学校欺凌干预可以减轻中度至重度照顾对心理健康的影响。
