Informal Caregiving in Adolescents from 10 to 16 Years Old: A Longitudinal Study Using Data from the Tokyo Teen Cohort

Miharu Nakanishi (), Daniel Stanyon, Marcus Richards, Syudo Yamasaki, Shuntaro Ando, Kaori Endo, Mariko Hosozawa, Mitsuhiro Miyashita, Mariko Hiraiwa-Hasegawa, Kiyoto Kasai and Atsushi Nishida
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Miharu Nakanishi: Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Center, 2300RC Leiden, The Netherlands
Daniel Stanyon: Mental Health Promotion Unit, Research Center for Social Science & Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8506, Japan
Marcus Richards: MRC Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing at UCL, University College London, London SW1H 9NA, UK
Syudo Yamasaki: Mental Health Promotion Unit, Research Center for Social Science & Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8506, Japan
Shuntaro Ando: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan
Kaori Endo: Mental Health Promotion Unit, Research Center for Social Science & Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8506, Japan
Mariko Hosozawa: Institute for Global Health Policy Research, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8655, Japan
Mitsuhiro Miyashita: Mental Health Promotion Unit, Research Center for Social Science & Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8506, Japan
Mariko Hiraiwa-Hasegawa: Department of Evolutionary Studies of Biosystems, The Graduate University for the Advanced Studies, Hayama 240-0193, Japan
Kiyoto Kasai: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan
Atsushi Nishida: Mental Health Promotion Unit, Research Center for Social Science & Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8506, Japan

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 15, 1-11

Abstract: There is growing evidence of the impact of informal caregiving on adolescent mental health, and its role is often hidden unintentionally or intentionally, which may hamper early identification and support for young informal caregivers. However, the quantitative evidence regarding household factors relating to informal caregiving has mostly been based on cross-sectional findings. This study examines the longitudinal associations between household characteristics and the duration of informal caregiving in adolescents from 10 to 16 years of age. Child–household respondent pairs ( n = 2331) from the Tokyo Teen Cohort in Japan were followed every 2 years from 10 to 16 years of age. Informal caregiving was assessed repeatedly based on the household respondent’s survey responses. Persistent caregiving was defined as daily caregiving at two or more waves. There were 2.2% of children who gave daily care at two or more waves. Cross-sectional associations with daily informal caregiving at each wave were found with girls, low household income, and cohabiting with grandparents. A significant association with persistent caregiving was found only in cohabiting with grandparents at 10 years of age after adjusting for sex, number of siblings, single parent, and household income. Our longitudinal examination highlighted cohabiting with grandparents as a preceding factor for persistent caregiving. Identification and support for young informal caregivers should be integrated into social care service systems for older adults. The mechanism of persistent caregiving requires clarification.

Keywords: adolescent; family caregiver; informal care; young caregivers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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