«Grandir comme aidant» : pour mieux comprendre la réalité des adolescents qui sont des aidants naturels auprès d'un parent dépendant

This research deals with adolescents that have become the young caregivers of a parent who suffers from a chronic illness in a context where increasing care needs have to be assumed by the individuals and their families (Guberman et coll., 2005), while, on the other hand, the services provided to caregivers still have difficulty in identifying the children or teenagers as carers. (Charles, Stainton et Marshall, 2012). Young carers adopt tasks and roles that are not always adapted to their age (Earley et Cushway, 2002) and which can compromise their psychosocial development (Sieh et coll., 2010, Davey et coll., 2005, Pedersen et Revenson, 2005). When talking about young caregivers, it is important to consider the caregiving on a continuum where all youth is implicated, in one way or another, in aspects related to the care of the ill parent. However, it is also important to consider that a smaller proportion adopts the role of young caregiver which results in an exaggerated implication of the teenager, as the time spent on helping as well as the nature of this help do not correspond to their age or their given developmental stage and there are important restrictions that have a negative impact in their life (Becker, 2007).  The aim of our research is therefore to investigate how this reality is experienced by the adolescents and how it is perceived and interpreted by practitioners from different professional fields in a Quebec context.  This research project is based on the theoretical framework of recognition as proposed by Honneth. In fact, based on the available literature we can assume that the attention given to young caregivers is central in their lives. Consequently, we believe that it is important to understand the various issues surrounding the recognition that most researchers talk about but that are seldom studied in relation to young caregivers. This conceptual framework will serve as a gateway to analyse four semi-structured interviews with teenagers aged 15 to 19 years, as well as seven semi-structured interviews with practitioners from diverse professional fields.  Findings from this study suggest there are three different dynamics of recognition describing the diverse challenges and issues surrounding the realities of young caregivers. These highlight that the consequences that young carers may face come not only from the caretaker role, but also from the relational dimension in regards to their reality. Furthermore, at the intersection of perspectives between teenagers and practitioners, a divergence point is made apparent and seems to impede in our way of conceptualizing the help that should be provided in regards to this phenomena. It seems that for practitioners, the improvement of the young caregivers’s situation occurs, among others, through support that should be provided to parents, while teenagers put a special emphasis in the particular ways in which their contribution is not only valued in the family sphere but also supported by the practitioners surrounding the family.

Keyphrases: Adolescents, Honneth, Young caregivers, Young carers, Chronic illness, Caregivers, Recognition, Relational dimension, Honneth