Adolescents' caregiving for family: Associations with mental health and academic performance

This study investigated adolescents' experiences caregiving for family members with chronic illness, disability, or aging-related needs. We examined differences in caregiving by maternal education level and associations with mental health and academic performance. A large, diverse sample of middle and high school students in Colorado (N = 49,540, 46% girls; ages 11-18, 31% Latine) reported how frequently they were caregiving for family each week, their mental health (e.g., anxiety, stress, depression, suicidality), and their perceptions of their academic grades compared with their peers. Statewide, 14% of adolescents were caregiving at least 1 to 2 days per week. Adolescents who provided the highest levels of caregiving came from families with significantly lower levels of maternal education, from historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups, and were more likely to identify as gender nonbinary/other. Caregiving adolescents reported significantly lower levels of mental health and lower grades compared with their noncaregiving peers, controlling for maternal education, race/ethnicity, age, and gender. These associations were consistent broadly across individual differences in demographic characteristics. The findings replicate evidence that high levels of caregiving responsibilities in adolescence are associated with emotional and academic challenges and extend prior evidence by examining the role of socioeconomic status, which has been difficult to collect in prior large-scale studies.