Laboratoire de Psychopathologie et Processus de Santé, Université Paris Cité, Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9193-SCALab-Sciences Cognitives et Affectives, Lille, France.
Child Care Health Dev. 2024 Mar;50(2):e13244. doi: 10.1111/cch.13244.
To identify the characteristics of adolescent young carers (AYCs), studies in the literature have compared them with non-AYCs, but without considering that in the latter group, some face the illness of a relative whereas others do not.
The aims of the study were (1) to identify the characteristics of AYCs as compared with adolescents who are not young carers but are facing the illness/disability of a relative, or adolescents not facing the illness/disability of a relative, and (2) to identify factors associated with being a carer within adolescents facing a relative illness.
A total of 4000 high school students (grades 10-12, mainly aged 15-17 years, 568 identified as AYCs, 1200 as adolescents facing the illness/disability of a relative without being a carer and 2232 as adolescents not facing the illness/disability of a relative) completed a self-reported questionnaire assessing sociodemographic characteristics, illness/disability in the family, caregiving activities (MACA-YC18 and specific emotional support scale), quality of life (KIDSCREEN-10) and mental health (GHQ-12). Chi-square tests, ANOVAs and logistic regressions were performed.
AYCs scored lower on the quality-of-life measure compared with adolescents not facing the illness/disability of a relative (p < .001) and had poorer mental health compared with adolescents facing the illness/disability of a relative without being a carer and adolescents not facing the illness/disability of a relative (p < .001). Logistic regressions showed that youth were more at risk to be an AYC when they were females (p < .001), when they had an extracurricular job (p < .001), spoke another language at home (p < .01), had siblings and were one of the oldest siblings (p < .001), and when the relative had a serious or chronic physical illness (p < .001) and lived with the youth (p < .001).
These results highlight the importance of distinguishing AYCs, adolescents facing the illness/disability of a relative without being a carer and adolescents not facing the illness/disability of a relative to better describe AYCs, recognizing that as the level of care provided might change over time, adolescents facing the illness/disability of a relative without being a carer could become AYCs or inversely. The factors that emerged could be used by professionals to better identify AYCs.
为了确定青少年照顾者（AYC）的特征，文献中的研究将他们与非 AYC 进行了比较，但没有考虑到在后一组中，一些人面临着亲属的疾病，而另一些人则没有。
本研究的目的是（1）确定 AYC 与面临亲属疾病/残疾的青少年或不面临亲属疾病/残疾的青少年之间的特征差异，以及（2）确定与青少年照顾者相关的因素。
共有 4000 名高中生（10-12 年级，主要年龄在 15-17 岁，568 名被确定为 AYC，1200 名是面临亲属疾病/残疾但不是照顾者的青少年，2232 名是不面临亲属疾病/残疾的青少年）完成了一份自我报告问卷，评估了社会人口特征、家庭中的疾病/残疾、照顾活动（MACA-YC18 和特定的情感支持量表）、生活质量（KIDSCREEN-10）和心理健康（GHQ-12）。进行了卡方检验、方差分析和逻辑回归分析。
AYC 在生活质量方面的得分低于不面临亲属疾病/残疾的青少年（p<.001），与不面临亲属疾病/残疾的青少年和面临亲属疾病/残疾但不是照顾者的青少年相比，心理健康状况较差（p<.001）。逻辑回归显示，当青少年为女性（p<.001）、有课外工作（p<.001）、在家说另一种语言（p<.01）、有兄弟姐妹且是最大的兄弟姐妹之一（p<.001）、亲属患有严重或慢性身体疾病（p<.001）且与青少年同住时（p<.001），他们成为 AYC 的风险更高。
这些结果强调了区分 AYC、面临亲属疾病/残疾但不是照顾者的青少年和不面临亲属疾病/残疾的青少年的重要性，以更好地描述 AYC，认识到随着提供的照顾水平可能会随时间而变化，面临亲属疾病/残疾但不是照顾者的青少年可能会成为 AYC 或反之亦然。出现的这些因素可以被专业人员用来更好地识别 AYC。
