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

Di Gessa, Giorgio; Xue, Baowen; Lacey, Rebecca E; McMunn, Anne; (2022) Young adult carers in the UK – New evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study. SocArXiv Papers: Ithaca, NY, USA. Green open access

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Abstract

Despite growing interest in young adult carers, little is known about trends in prevalence of caregiving among young adults aged 16-29. Also, 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 gender, 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.

Type: Working / discussion paper
Title: Young adult carers in the UK – New evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/fd9cb
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/fd9cb
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author 2022. Original content in this paper is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10156589
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