Abstract
While the vast majority of family caregivers struggle to find balance between different roles in their lives, young adult caregivers are faced with the atypical challenge of caring for family member while simultaneously accomplishing developmental tasks typical of this stage in life (e.g., establishing career, developing romantic relationships). This exploratory, qualitative study examined strategies used by young adults to adopt family caregiving roles. These strategies can be described as embracement, compromise, and integration. While each approach allowed for the young adult to facilitate their caregiving role, additional research is needed to understand how the strategy affects the emerging adult’s development.
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Data Availability
Primary data for this study were collected by Drs. Pope and Baldwin. We have complied with guidance from our institutional review boards in this process.
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Not applicable.
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Funding
Kirsten Smith was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH NIDA during the preparation of this manuscript. Natalie Pope received partial funding support from the University of Kentucky to conduct this study.
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NDP and PKB were co-researchers on the study and both participated in data collection and analysis. KS and AG both contributed to drafting this particular paper from the study and situating our study in extant literature. All four authors contributed to and were involved in the final approval of this manuscript to be submitted.
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Drs. Pope and Baldwin received approval from the institutional review boards at their respective universities to complete this study.
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A written consent form was used in that participants were informed about study procedures, how data would be used, the voluntary nature of their participation, etc. ahead of data being collected. Participants signed the consent form digitally (or in paper form) and send the consent form back to researchers before telephone interviews were scheduled.
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Pope, N.D., Baldwin, P.K., Gibson, A. et al. Becoming a Caregiver: Experiences of Young Adults Moving into Family Caregiving Roles. J Adult Dev 29, 147–158 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-021-09391-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-021-09391-3