Regarding young carers, which refer to children and young people under the age of 18 who take care of family members in need of care and housework and have responsibilities that should be borne by adults, a young carer scale that can be compared with other countries will be created and used by 5,000 junior high and high school students in Japan. A fact-finding survey revealed that 7.4% of the respondents were affected.This is the first survey in Japan, conducted jointly by a research group led by Professor Kiyoto Kasai of the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, and the University of Nottingham, UK.
According to the University of Tokyo, Young Carers is a concept that originated in England.In Japan as well, the government and local governments are working to build a support system that includes fact-finding surveys and legal development. There was no scale for comparison.
Therefore, in joint research with Professor Stephen Joseph of the University of Nottingham, the research group led by Professor Kasai created a Japanese version of the scale of the joint survey conducted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the University of Nottingham, and used it to develop a Japanese version of the scale for the existence of young carers in Japan. checked the rate.
When this scale was applied to 5,000 junior and senior high school students attending private full-time junior and senior high school groups in one prefecture in the Tokyo metropolitan area, it was found that 7.4% corresponded to young carers.This was lower than the 22% surveyed in the UK by the same criteria, but roughly in line with the situation in other European countries.Young carers were also found to be more anxious and depressed than non-young carers.
