Being caregivers for ill adults in the home is
the reality of over a million school children in America. Many are from racial-ethnic
minority communities, low to mid-income families, and single-parent households.
As a former public school principal, it was not unusual for me to have students
in elementary through high school grades with attendance problems due to
caregiving responsibilities at homes when no one else was available to help.
These children’s responsibilities included medicating, dressing, feeding,
bathing, taking care of siblings, and more. The emotional stress of child
caregivers can be even more harmful to them than the physical burdens.
Unfortunately, as the economy struggles and the ranks of baby boomers expand,
increasing numbers of children are being assigned caregiving responsibilities.
While caregiving roles of children under 18 who are living with
parents who have health conditions or disabilities have been studied extensively
abroad, little U.S. research has examined the caregiving activities
and perceptions of children with similar parents. This
U.S. research on child caregivers includes childhood
perceptions of caregiving from adults sharing their childhood caregiving experiences years later. Through interviews with 20 adult former child caregivers of
a parent with significant mobility disability, the following themes emerged:
1) Most
interviewees assisted their disabled parent with activities of daily living
(ADLs) and instrumental ADLs.
2) Some
children provided more medical supports.
3) Several
parents, especially of older interviewees, did not seek their children's care.
4) Interviewees
reported both positive and negative childhood attitudes about caregiving.
5) Roughly half
recalled as children feeling proud, special, or otherwise positively toward caregiving activities,
6) About
one-third viewed caregiving as
just part of their daily reality (i.e., simply needing to be done).
7) Approximately
half remembered also feeling resentful, primarily from time demands,
insufficient appreciation, and being different from their peers.
8) Interviewees
reported gender and cultural factors affecting their caregiving roles and perceptions
These varied responses suggest
that more understanding regarding caregiving roles of children and perceptions
they have about their involvement are needed. This knowledge can lead to improving
their experiences as well as those of the parent in need of caregiving. More people are recognizing this problem and, for some
children, but not nearly enough, help is being provided. The Caregiving Youth
Project sponsored by the American Association of
Caregiving Youth provides in-school assistance and a caregiver camp for
children who are caregivers.
This
video focuses on children doing caregiving related to excessive supervision of
other siblings and responsibility for household chores. These kinds of
responsibilities can burden children in all kinds of living situations. Featured is research done by Michigan State University regarding effects that childhood
caregiving can have on these children when they become parents themselves.
Because they may not understand appropriate child development, they may be less
sensitive with their own children and parent them in the ways they were raised.
Frances Shani Parker, Author
Becoming
Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available
in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at online and
offline booksellers.
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