Examination of the tripartite model of youth caregiving in the context of parental illness

Abstract

Objective

This study refined the conceptualisation of youth caregiving by testing the tripartite model of youth caregiving proposed by Pakenham and Cox, comprising caregiving responsibilities, experiences, and tasks. We also investigated convergent validity of the model by examining the unique and joint contributions of the three youth caregiving components to youth adjustment outcomes.

Design

A total of 681 Italian youth, 325 young carers and 356 non-carers, aged 11 to 24 years participated in a cross-sectional study.

Main outcome measures

Participants completed a questionnaire assessing demographics, youth caregiving, and psychosocial adjustment.

Results

Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that compared to a one-factor model, the three-factor youth caregiving model provided a better fit to the data in the young carer and non-carer subgroups. The three youth caregiving components predicted variations in youth adjustment. Caregiving experiences were the strongest predictor of poorer youth adjustment while caregiving tasks predicted improvement in two youth adjustment outcomes in diverse youth caregiving contexts.

Conclusions

Findings support the validity of a three-factor model of youth caregiving, indicating that caregiving responsibilities, experiences, and tasks represent empirically distinct but related youth caregiving components. Interventions should mitigate the adverse and cultivate the positive effects of youth caregiving.

Keywords:

• Young carers
• caregiving responsibilities and experiences
• caregiving tasks
• parental illness or disability
• youth adjustment

Disclosure of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The dataset generated for this study is available on request to the corresponding author.

Notes

1 Because the Kidscreen-27 (Kidscreen Group Europe, 2006) and the Youth Self-Report (YSR; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) in this study were applied to a wider age range than the validated age range, we examined measurement invariance across two age groups (youth aged 11-17 and those aged 18-24) by conducting multi–group CFAs. We examined both configural (the same number of factors and pattern of fixed and freely estimated parameters hold across groups) and metric invariance (equivalence of factor loadings). We considered the following changes in fit indices: ΔCFI ≥ -.010 supplemented by ΔRMSEA ≥ .015 indicative of non–invariance (Chen, 2007, p. 501). Results indicated that metric invariance of both instruments was established (Kidscreen-27: ΔCFI = -.003 and ΔRMSEA = 0.000; YSR: ΔCFI = -.004 and ΔRMSEA = .006). This means that the Kidscreen-27 and the YSR factors have the same unit of measurement across the two age groups examined in this sample.

2 In this condition, the parceling technique has several advantages, such as a more optimal sample size ratio indication (Bagozzi & Edwards, 1998) and a greater likelihood of achieving a good model solution (Marsh et al., 1998). For a further discussion of the advantages of parceling technique see Dimitrova et al., 2016 (for similar applications with other instruments used with youth see for instance, Crocetti et al., 2016; Morsünbül et al., 2014; Zimmermann et al., 2012).