How Do South-Asian Young Carers in the UK experience their caregiving roles? An IPA Study

Abstract

Background
Young carers are a population of children who hold caregiving responsibilities to adults voluntarily and without pay. Since 1993, a substantial amount of research examining the varied experiences of this population highlights a range of psychological, social and physical implications of being a young carer. The wealth of research on young carers led to policy implementations supporting this population, however, research examining the experiences of BAME young carers remains scarce, despite grey literature highlighting an increased likelihood of BAME children becoming carers.
Aim
Explore the experiences of being a South-Asian young carer in the UK, contributing to addressing the scarcity of knowledge pertaining to BAME young carers.
Methods
Six South-Asian young carers were interviewed regarding their experiences of being a young carer, using semi-structured interviews. Transcriptions were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
Results
Four themes were discovered from interviews: Drawing on different coping resources, The importance of being seen and heard, Caregiving continuity perpetuated by internal and external factors and The psychological impacts of caregiving.
Conclusions
Findings illustrate the diversity of experiences amongst South-Asian young carers. Much of the findings highlight a range of psychological and social challenges faced by young carers. Some participants also reported experiencing positive impacts of caregiving, demonstrating divergence of experiences, indicating that young carers are a highly heterogenous population, despite the shared cultural backgrounds amongst the participants.
Findings also highlight that culture can either support or add to existing difficulties for SouthAsian young carers, thus, highlighting cultural factors that may exacerbate or alleviate challenges that South-Asian young carers face. Given the pluralistic and humanistic philosophy of Counselling Psychology, findings from the study highlight cultural factors that should be taken into account, when working clinically with South-Asian young carers and their families.

Date of Award	10 Sept 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Roehampton
Supervisor	Virginia Lam (Director of Studies) & Gella Richards (Co-Supervisor)