Children and parental health
Children and parental health
Theme 2: Measuring and Valuing Outcomes
Standard evaluation methods do not take explicit account of “spillovers” – health externalities within the household
Research has focused mainly on carers – particularly the carers of older people with disabilities, but there has also been some research on impacts on children who have caring responsibilities for a sibling or parent
However, children may be significantly affected by the illness or disability of their parents, even if those children are not called upon to act as carers. Parental ill health may have a direct impact on the children’s mental health and wellbeing, and on the quality of parenting that the children receive. The family’s income may also be affected, leading to significant material deprivation in some cases.
These impacts on the children may impair their mental health, contribute to behavioural problems, or lead to damaging health behaviours – which may in turn have an adverse impact throughout the lifecourse
To assess the associations between parental health and a wide range of health-related child outcomes
To make a first attempt to quantify the impacts and indicate their potential significance for policy evaluation and cost-effectiveness work
Steve Pudney, Monica Hernandez, Allan Wailoo
Steve Pudney steve.pudney@sheffield.ac.uk
Background:
This research looks at how parents' health can affect their children. If a parent is sick, it can affect their child's happiness and mental health directly. It may also make it more difficult to parent in the way they would like. All of this may have long-term consequences for children but, when we conduct an economic evaluation, these consequences are not currently considered.
Aims and objectives:
The study aims to assess how big this impact is and how it matters for making policies.
Methods:
To do this, the researchers are using a large set of data on children aged 10-15 and their families called “Understanding Society”. This is a UK survey that has run for many years (2009-2022) and aims to explore how life in the UK is changing. Importantly, the interviews include everyone in a household. The researchers are using this information over several years to see how parental health links to child outcomes, like well-being, mental health, school attendance and behavioural problems. They will also take into account other family circumstances, like family income, material needs, parents’ education, and housing.
Because the survey follows the same families over time, some people will be interviewed first as children, then later as adults. This will make it possible to see whether children who have a sick parent are affected later in life.
Policy relevance & dissemination:
The work will inform whether there is a case to incorporate these additional impacts from providing health care to adult parents in economic evaluation routinely undertaken by DHSC and related organisations like NICE. The findings will be presented to these organisations and to other academics working in this field.