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

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  • 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
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    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.
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