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All work and no play? Understanding the needs of children with caring responsibilities

journal contribution
posted on 2013-10-03, 13:20 authored by Jo Aldridge
This article draws on research with children who provide care for parents with serious mental health problems and signals ongoing research that uses photographic participation methods with these groups of vulnerable children. The intention of this article is to highlight the need to move away from popular and simplistic representations of children with caring responsibilities (young carers) as victims of their parents’ illnesses, as ‘little angels’ whose caring work is condoned through rewards or as (exploited) informal domestic workers whose childhoods are inevitably compromised by the caring activity they undertake. Recommendations are made for generating deeper understanding about the lives and needs of children who are affected by parental impairment that is congruent with the thrust of current UK policy, Every Child Matters and the 2004 Children Act.

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies

Citation

ALDRIDGE, J., 2008. All work and no play? Understanding the needs of children with caring responsibilities. Children and Society, 22 (4), pp. 253 - 264.

Publisher

Wiley © The Author Journal compilation © National Children's Bureau

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publication date

2008

Notes

This article is closed access, it was published in the journal Children and Society [Wiley © The Author Journal compilation © National Children's Bureau]. The definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2007.00094.x

ISSN

0951-0605

Language

  • en