A Longitudinal Analysis Comparing the Mental Health of Children By Level of Young Carer Status.

Introduction: Young carers research has predominantly focused on the experiences of children who often provide substantial levels of care for family members, and the impacts of this caring on their lives. While quantitative studies of prevalence have increased, there have been increasing calls for cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of young carers relative to children without caring responsibilities, to strengthen and challenge the existing evidence on impact.

Methods/materials: The study utilized the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England: Next Steps (LSYPE), a cohort study of over 12,500 children aged 13 in 2004.

Young Carer Perception of Control: Results of a Phenomenology with a Mixed Sample of Young Carers Accessing Support and Unknown to Services.

Identification challenges have resulted in young carers research largely being conducted with those who access support. Positive and negative impacts have been evidenced but there remains little consideration of the wider population. This phenomenology defines young carers as a spectrum of children with different experiences and aims to study the larger group.

Young carers, mental health and psychosocial wellbeing: A realist synthesis.

Growing evidence demonstrates that the mental and psychosocial health impacts of caring vary significantly for individual children, depending on who they are, the person that they care for, their responsibilities and the wider family situation. Although individual studies have made progress in identifying the range of impacts, there is a lack of clarity around which impacts affect who and in what circumstances. This synthesis, based on RAMESES realist protocols, aims to increase clarity concerning how and why the mental and psychosocial health impacts of caring for a family member vary for different children.