The consequences of caring on health during early adulthood in Spain

Young informal carers are gaining importance due to the growing demand for older care needs and the reduction of available family carers. Caring can be intense and time-consuming, and is associated with lower educational attainment, income and poorer health. Despite the need to understand the impact of care during early adulthood in Spain, where public care support to dependent adults is scarce, no studies have yet investigated this phenomenon. Here we use the Spanish and European Health Surveys from 2017 and 2019 to analyse how providing unpaid care between the ages of 17 and 29 is associated with having a chronic condition and a mental health condition. Results indicate that young adult carers are more likely to experience chronic conditions (when providing less than 10 hours of care per week) and to report mental health conditions (when providing 20 hours or more of care per week) compared to non-carers of the same age. Howeverh, controlling for endogeneity in the case of having a chronic condition makes the relationship statistically insignificant. This suggests that young adult carers with chronic conditions may be more available to engage in less demanding caring activities, whereas intensive caregiving may lead to more mental health problems.