Background
Young carers are people aged 18 and under who provide unpaid, informal care to a person who is usually a family member with a disability, chronic illness, or frailty due to old age. Despite evidence that this group is at increased risk of poor mental health, little is known about self-harm and suicide among young carers. This study used population representative data to examine self-harming and suicidal behaviours among young carers.
Methods
We used data from Waves 6-8 (2014-2018) of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children to assess the effect of “core” caregiving activities (e.g. personal care, assistance moving around) on suicidal and self-harming behaviours. Care activities at 16-17 years were classified as core caregiving, non-core caregiving and no caregiving. Five self-harming and suicidal measures, collected at age 18/19 years, were used to form two outcomes: thoughts (of self-harm or suicide, or plan to suicide) and behaviours (self-harm, suicide attempt), operationalised as binary variables. Analyses were carried out using augmented inverse probability treatment weighting, adjusting for potential confounders on complete case data. Sensitivity analysis was conducted on an imputed dataset.
Results
Core caregiving at age 16/17 was associated with suicidal and self-harming behaviours at age 18/19 compared to those not in a caregiving role, with an average treatment effect (ATE) of 0.07(95%CI0.02, 0.12), equating to a risk ratio of 1.81(95%CI1.16, 2.45). The ATE of core caregiving on thoughts of suicide or self-harm (compared to non-carers) was 0.06(95%CI -0.00, 0.12), equating to a risk ratio of 1.29 (95%CI 0.98, 1.59). No differences were observed between non-core care provision and no care for any outcomes.
Conclusion
This study highlights the pressures and personal costs associated with intensive caregiving for young people. Increased risks of self-harm underline the crucial need to better identify and support young carers to mitigate these adverse outcomes.