Young Carers: Challenging the facts and politics of research into children and caring

Abstract

This paper critically reviews existing research on young carers. I argue that our knowledge of what young carers do and how they differ from other children, is extremely limited. Without this information, practice recommendations will be based on guesswork and prejudice. I argue that the existing literature pays lip service to the support, or lack of it, that disabled people need to empower them as parents. In this context, I also review research into the relationship between disability and parenting. Research has tended to involve the search for the negative impact of an adult's disability on a child's growth, intelligence and adjustment. This has therefore told us little about how parental disability affects the domestic and caring tasks of children. There is a conceptual hole in the middle of our existing awareness about caring and childhood, with which future research must attempt to grapple.