Italian Adolescent Young Caregivers of Grandparents: Difficulties Experienced and Support Needed in Intergenerational Caregiving-Qualitative Findings from a European Union Funded Project

Recruitment of Adolescent Young Carers to a Psychosocial Support Intervention Study in Six European Countries: Lessons Learned from the ME-WE Project

Young carers provide a substantial amount of care to family members and support to friends, yet their situation has not been actively addressed in research and policy in many European countries or indeed globally. Awareness of their situation by professionals and among children and young carers themselves remains low overall. Thus, young carers remain a largely hidden group within society. This study reports and analyses the recruitment process in a multi-centre intervention study offering psychosocial support to adolescent young carers (AYCs) aged 15-17 years. A cluster-randomised controlled trial was designed, with recruitment taking place in Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom exploiting various channels, including partnerships with schools, health and social services and carers organisations. In total, 478 AYCs were recruited and, after screening failures, withdrawals and initial dropouts, 217 were enrolled and started the intervention. Challenges encountered in reaching, recruiting and retaining AYCs included low levels of awareness among AYCs, a low willingness to participate in study activities, uncertainty about the prevalence of AYCs, a limited school capacity to support the recruitment; COVID-19 spreading in 2020-2021 and related restrictions. Based on this experience, recommendations are put forward for how to better engage AYCs in research.

Grandchildren as Caregivers: Adding a New Layer to the Sandwich Generation

Although 10% of family caregivers are grandchildren, only a few studies have examined the experience of grandchildren who provide care to grandparents. The current study examined the caregiving processes and outcomes of grandchild caregivers to grandparents. Participants were (N  =  5,778) adults identified as a caregiver, including 311 adult grandchildren. Analyses showed that although caregivers to grandparents did not differ significantly from other family caregivers in terms of depression, grandchildren did differ on a variety of demographic and caregiving context variables. A hierarchical binary logistic regression showed that providing personal care and helping with household tasks contribute to the equation, however, grandchild status did not uniquely contribute to the equation after other elements of the caregiving and personal contexts were entered. Post-hoc analyses identified additional predictors within the group of grandchild caregivers. The current study is an important starting point in understanding the experiences of grandchildren caregivers.

Research and Innovation for and with Adolescent Young Carers to Influence Policy and Practice-The European Union Funded "ME-WE" Project

Young carers are children and adolescents who provide care to other family members or friends, taking over responsibilities that are usually associated with adulthood. There is emerging but still scarce knowledge worldwide about the phenomenon of young carers and the impact of a caring role on their health, social and personal development spheres. This paper provides an overview of the main results from the ME-WE project, which is the first European research and innovation project dedicated to adolescent young carers (AYCs) (15-17 years). The project methods relied on three main activities: (1) a systematization of knowledge (by means of a survey to AYCs, country case studies, Delphi study, literature review); (2) the co-design, implementation and evaluation of a primary prevention intervention addressing AYCs' mental health (by means of Blended Learning Networks and a clinical trial in six European countries); (3) the implementation of knowledge translation actions for dissemination, awareness, advocacy and lobbying (by means of national and international stakeholder networks, as well as traditional and new media). Project results substantially contributed to a better understanding of AYCs' conditions, needs and preferences, defined tailored support intervention (resilient to COVID-19 related restrictions), and significant improvements in national and European policies for AYCs.