‘I realised that I wasn't alone’: the views and experiences of young carers from a social capital perspective

Barry, Monica

doi:10.1080/13676261.2010.551112

Cited by 54 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The international literature on the experiences of young carers provides a framework for understanding the ways that family caring labour within Western societies is not only the domain of adults and adulthood, but also of children and childhood. Young carers refer to children and youth who are understood as providing significant physical and emotional care, as well as financial contributions to members of their families (Barry, ; Thomas and others, ). To date research about the nature and significance of the contributions of young carers presents a complex and often negative view of their experiences.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of children, it is the young carers’ movement that has raised awareness about the caring labour provided by children to their parents. Advocates challenge traditional models for understanding families and the needs of children providing care as ineffective often misrepresenting by pathologising the children and their family relationships (Barry, ; Dearden and Becker, ; Thomas and others, ). In the case of young people living in poverty, the literature about their caring is fragmented across different research areas and focuses primarily on issues related to the quality of their lives or on the impact of the material disadvantage on their well‐being.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Over 1000 Aluminium Cans for Forty Dollars: The Provisioning Contributions of Older Children from the Perspectives of Welfare‐Reliant Lone Mothers

Liegghio

2014

Children & Society

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In this article, as a child and family mental health therapist, I connect the feminist concept of 'provisioning' and the experiences of 'young carers' to critically examine the family care contributions made by older children living in poverty. I present the findings of a qualitative study consisting of two focus groups in which ten (n = 10) welfare-reliant lone mothers living in Toronto, Canada described the nature and significance of the contributions made by their older children (11-17 years old) to help their families 'make ends meet'. Using grounded theory, two main categories emerged: (1) the nature of the provisioning by older children, and (2) the significance of the contributions. The implications of the findings suggest that mental health approaches with older children living in poverty inappropriately misrepresent and pathologise their emotional distress and family contributions.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Over 1000 Aluminium Cans for Forty Dollars: The Provisioning Contributions of Older Children from the Perspectives of Welfare‐Reliant Lone Mothers

Liegghio

2014

Children & Society

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“…He goes on to argue that once friendship groups have been established, children and young people are ready to go to great lengths to sustain their friendships, particularly throughout adolescence and in times of domestic turmoil, where friendship networks can take on greater significance than the family (Coleman, 1990). Barry (2011), drawing on the work of Coleman and other social-capital theorists in relation to young carers in the United Kingdom, found friends to feature highly in the lives of young carers. The positive impact of having close friends was not only about having someone to talk to about their home situation, it was also about giving them the opportunity to be like other children and youths, escaping their caring role, to be free from worries (Barry, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Barry (2011), drawing on the work of Coleman and other social-capital theorists in relation to young carers in the United Kingdom, found friends to feature highly in the lives of young carers. The positive impact of having close friends was not only about having someone to talk to about their home situation, it was also about giving them the opportunity to be like other children and youths, escaping their caring role, to be free from worries (Barry, 2011). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The concept of social capital (see Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 2000) is increasingly used to understand the social psychological resources that children — at a micro-level — invest in and actively negotiate access to in dealing with life circumstances (Morrow, 1999; Barry, 2011). Coleman (1988 and 1990), combining the rationality of individuals and the social structures in which they are located, argues that children and young people actively develop friendship groups who can offer support in times of hardship.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coping with hardship through friendship: the importance of peer social capital among children affected by HIV in Kenya

Skovdal

Ogutu²

2012

African Journal of AIDS Research

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Children living in households affected by HIV face numerous challenges as they take on significant household-sustaining and caregiving roles, often in conditions of poverty. To respond to their hardships, we must identify and understand the support systems they are already part of. For this reason, and to emphasise the agentic capabilities of children, this article explores how vulnerable children cope with hardship through peer social capital. The study draws on the perspectives of 48 HIV-affected and caregiving children who through PhotoVoice and draw-and-write exercises produced 184 photographs and 56 drawings, each accompanied with a written reflection. The themes emerging from the essays reveal that schools provide children with a useful platform to establish and draw on a mix of friendship structures. The children were found to strategically establish formalised friendship groups that have the explicit purpose of members supporting each other during times of hardship. The children also formed more natural friendship groups based on mutual attraction, with the implicit expectation that they will help each other out during times of hardship. In practice, the study found that children help each other through sharing (e.g. schools material and food) as well as through practical support (e.g. with domestic duties, securing food, and income-generation) — thus demonstrating that children are able to both accumulate and benefit from ‘peer social capital.’ The study concludes that a key coping strategy of HIV-affected and caregiving children is to mobilise and participate in friendship groups which are characterised by sharing and reciprocity of support. Development responses to support children affected by the HIV epidemic need to take heed of children's ability to draw on peer social capital.

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Third Places, Social Capital, and Sense of Community as Mechanisms of Adaptive Responding for Young People Who Experience Social Marginalization

Littman

2021

American J of Comm Psychol

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Many young people who experience social marginalization (such as young people of color, who identify as LGBTQ, and who have experienced housing instability, among others) have often faced significant trauma exposure and social oppression and may endure subsequent adverse impacts on their well‐being. Conversely, many such young people exhibit adaptive responding—the ability to maintain well‐being through and despite such contextual constraints. This theoretical paper illustrates a conceptual model for how third places—public settings which offer sociability and community connection—may foster adaptive responding through the mutually constitutive (i.e., mutually reinforcing and interrelated) mechanisms of psychological sense of community and social capital. As prior work on third places has not considered the social marginalization which many young people face, especially in public settings, this theoretical model also considers how social policing in third places potentially moderates the mutually constitutive relationships between participation in third places, social capital, and psychological sense of community. This paper ends with a proposed research agenda, which may empirically test this theoretical model and its assumptions through future model development. Lastly, key considerations for policy and practice are offered, with particular attention to how young people may be affirmed and welcomed in third places rather than socially policed.

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‘I realised that I wasn't alone’: the views and experiences of young carers from a social capital perspective

Cited by 54 publications

References 12 publications

Over 1000 Aluminium Cans for Forty Dollars: The Provisioning Contributions of Older Children from the Perspectives of Welfare‐Reliant Lone Mothers

Over 1000 Aluminium Cans for Forty Dollars: The Provisioning Contributions of Older Children from the Perspectives of Welfare‐Reliant Lone Mothers

Coping with hardship through friendship: the importance of peer social capital among children affected by HIV in Kenya

Third Places, Social Capital, and Sense of Community as Mechanisms of Adaptive Responding for Young People Who Experience Social Marginalization

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