ABSTRACT
Since the 1990s, research has documented the roles and responsibilities that children and young people undertake within families and the negative (and sometimes positive) outcomes that caring for a parent (or relative) with a disability or chronic illness may have on their transitions to ‘independent adulthood’ such as education and employment. While this research has occurred primarily in the global North, the HIV epidemic in the global South, particularly Africa, has received increasing attention in terms of the impact on children and young people’s caring responsibilities. In Africa young people are increasingly relied upon to care for chronically ill parents and other relatives such as siblings and grandparents who have experienced the loss of their usual caregivers, as well as those affected by other chronic illness and disability. This chapter stems from research undertaken in Zambia that compared the transitions to adulthood of older young people (aged 14 to 30) both with and without caring responsibilities for sick or disabled parents or relatives. The chapter highlights how young caregivers, and the act of caregiving undertaken by young people, is perceived in Zambia. It will explore how young caregiving is rarely identified in the Zambian context and how even those caregiving themselves often do not identify with this role or see it as over and above their expected responsibilities. It also discusses the difficulty in trying to characterise young people by their caring responsibilities, instead arguing that all young people move in and out of a ‘continuum of care’ over many years which shapes their transitions to adulthood.
