Child care

BACKGROUND: Family income is known to affect child health, but this relationship can be bidirectional. We sought to characterize this relationship by quantifying forgone family employment (FFE) due to a child's health condition in families of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) with updated figures. METHODS: We conducted a secondary data analysis from the 2016-2017 National Survey of Children's Health. CSHCN with previously employed caregivers were included (N = 14 050).

Understanding patterns of intergenerational support is critical within the context of demographic change, such as changing family structures and population ageing. Existing research has focused on intergenerational support at a given time in the individuals' lifecourse, e.g. from adult children towards older parents and vice versa; however, few studies have focused on the dynamic nature of such support.

Using data from the International Social Survey Programme (2012), this study compares public attitudes towards who should cover the costs of caring for children and older people in five Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark) and two Baltic ones (Latvia and Lithuania). The study found interesting differences between both groups of nations: citizens from Baltic countries consider the role of the family more important than their counterparts in Nordic countries.

This article draws on research with children who provide care for parents with serious mental health problems and signals ongoing research that uses photographic participation methods with these groups of vulnerable children.

This study uses Australian survey data to explore whether caring for children and young people with disabilities affects paid employment participation of fathers who identify as the secondary caregiver. More fathers in the study were in full-time employment than those in the general Australian population, but they worked fewer hours, often in jobs they did not enjoy or roles with less responsibility. Over one third of fathers reported that caring had impacted on their job opportunities or career progression, particularly those whose children had more severe disabilities.

Drawing on an interview-based case study of young people caring for dependent adult members of their households in Harare, this paper connects the experiences of young carers in Zimbabwe to global forces—namely the HIV/AIDS pandemic and economic liberalisation. It is argued, firstly, that care-giving by young people is a largely hidden and unappreciated aspect of national economies which is growing as an outcome of conservative macroeconomic policies and the HIV/AIDS explosion. Secondly, that young people have a right to recognition of their work as work.

This report presents the findings of a survey exploring the challenges of raising young children alongside supporting older parents or disabled family members.

Reflecting dominant understandings of childhood, many researchers describe orphans as an emotional and financial cost to the households in which they live. This has created a representation of orphans as a burden, not only to their fostering household, but also to society. This article seeks to challenge this representation by exploring children's contributions to their fostering households.

African children who care for sick or dying adults are receiving less than optimal support due to confusion about whether or not young caregiving constitutes a form of child labour and the tendency of the authorities to play it “safe” and side with more abolitionist approaches to children's work, avoiding engagement with support strategies that could be seen as support of child labour.

Mainstream literature on paid care for children, frail elderly people and people with chronic illness or disability, and unpaid care provided usually by family members within households and kin networks tends to establish dichotomies: formal/informal, commodified/non-commodified. Recent feminist literature rejects these dichotomies, developing models of social care in which the interconnections of paid and unpaid care are mapped within policy frameworks.