IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i20p6920-d1259609.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Caregiving Youth” and the Patchwork History of Recognition in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Olson

    (Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA)

  • Leiha Edmonds

    (Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA)

Abstract

This article examines the U.S. legislative and policy landscape and its historical and contemporary recognition of young people as caregivers and their importance to public health, both as care providers and as a category of special concern for overall wellbeing. Drawing on feminist geographies of health to situate a historical analysis, we aim to answer two key questions: First, what is the history of recognition of caregiving youth in key moments of federal action to address family caregiving needs? Second, how might we use this history to better understand and analyze the patchwork geography of caregiving youth recognition in the U.S. and other countries that similarly lack formal national policy recognition to improve and enhance public health? We use the term patchwork to describe how federal recognition of caregiving youth in broader debates about public health is uneven across both time and space, and contingent upon civil society, non-profit organizations, and researchers working in and with geographically bound communities. Our results illustrate how a focus on the relationships of recognition, both in the past and the present and at local and national scales, reveals a different perspective on caregiving youth in the U.S. with a much more complex history than previously identified. The article describes how relationships established in the absence of federal policy or legislation are sometimes directed towards building more formal recognition, and other times with the goal of changing practices in a specific location.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Olson & Leiha Edmonds, 2023. "“Caregiving Youth” and the Patchwork History of Recognition in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(20), pages 1-15, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:20:p:6920-:d:1259609
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/20/6920/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/20/6920/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Talley, R.C. & Crews, J.E., 2007. "Framing the public health of caregiving," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(2), pages 224-228.
    2. Elizabeth Hanson & Francesco Barbabella & Lennart Magnusson & Rosita Brolin & Miriam Svensson & Stecy Yghemonos & Valentina Hlebec & Irena Bolko & Licia Boccaletti & Giulia Casu & Renske Hoefman & Ali, 2022. "Research and Innovation for and with Adolescent Young Carers to Influence Policy and Practice—The European Union Funded “ME-WE” Project," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-33, August.
    3. Marianne Saragosa & Melissa Frew & Shoshana Hahn-Goldberg & Ani Orchanian-Cheff & Howard Abrams & Karen Okrainec, 2022. "The Young Carers’ Journey: A Systematic Review and Meta Ethnography," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-25, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francesco Barbabella & Lennart Magnusson & Licia Boccaletti & Giulia Casu & Valentina Hlebec & Irena Bolko & Feylyn Lewis & Renske Hoefman & Rosita Brolin & Sara Santini & Marco Socci & Barbara D’Amen, 2023. "Recruitment of Adolescent Young Carers to a Psychosocial Support Intervention Study in Six European Countries: Lessons Learned from the ME-WE Project," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-20, March.
    2. Young Kyung Do & Edward C. Norton & Sally C. Stearns & Courtney Harold Van Houtven, 2015. "Informal Care and Caregiver's Health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 224-237, February.
    3. Sharon Anderson & Jasneet Parmar & Tanya L’Heureux & Bonnie Dobbs & Lesley Charles & Peter George J. Tian, 2022. "Family Caregiving during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada: A Mediation Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Csilla Csoboth & Edward A Witt & Kathleen F Villa & Cedric O’Gorman, 2015. "The humanistic and economic burden of providing care for a patient with schizophrenia," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 61(8), pages 754-761, December.
    5. Elena Guggiari & Marianne Fatton & Saul Becker & Feylyn Lewis & Giulia Casu & Renske Hoefman & Elizabeth Hanson & Sara Santini & Licia Boccaletti & Henk Herman Nap & Valentina Hlebec & Alexandra Wirth, 2023. "Visibility as a Key Dimension to Better Health-Related Quality of Life and Mental Health: Results of the European Union Funded “ME-WE” Online Survey Study on Adolescent Young Carers in Switzerland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-17, February.
    6. Britta Neugaard & Elena Andresen & Sarah McKune & Eric Jamoom, 2008. "Health-Related Quality of Life in a National Sample of Caregivers: Findings from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 559-575, December.
    7. Maggie T. Ornstein & Christine C. Caruso, 2024. "The Social Ecology of Caregiving: Applying the Social–Ecological Model across the Life Course," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(1), pages 1-10, January.
    8. Kristine Williams & Anne Arthur & Michelle Niedens & Lois Moushey & Lewis Hutfles, 2013. "In-Home Monitoring Support for Dementia Caregivers," Clinical Nursing Research, , vol. 22(2), pages 139-150, May.
    9. Bente Storm Mowatt Haugland & Mari Hysing & Børge Sivertsen, 2023. "Does It Matter Who You Provide Care for? Mental Health and Life Satisfaction in Young Adult Carers Associated with Type of Relationship and Illness Category—A National Student Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-16, February.
    10. Bail, Christopher A., 2016. "Cultural carrying capacity: Organ donation advocacy, discursive framing, and social media engagement," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 280-288.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:20:p:6920-:d:1259609. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.