Caring in Young Life: What Are the Consequences for Education Attainment and Health?

Elisenda Rentería , Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics
Mariona Lozano , CED, Centre for Demographic Studies
Jeroen Spijker, Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED)

At the same time, families are becoming smaller, meaning that fewer relatives are available to take care of them. This is creating a situation where young informal caregivers are becoming more important. Nevertheless, informal caregiving is known to be associated with lower educational attainment and poorer health. In the case of Spain, where public care support to adult dependents is very scarce and there are very high rates of early school dropout, there is an urgent need to address the precarious socioeconomic situation of young caregivers. The objective of our study is to analyze how caring for an adult individual at a young age (under 35 years-old) is associated with their educational attainment and health status. We use the Spanish time use survey from 2003 and 2010, and the Basque Country time use survey, which gathers data from 2003 to 2018. Although the Basque Country is a region in Spain, it is representative of family attitudes and care needs of the whole country. Regarding the expected results, we anticipate an association of being a caregiver at a young age with having a lower education attainment and a poorer health.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe