About one in eight young people undergoing training – as pupils, apprentices or university students – is wholly or partially responsible for the well-being and care of older, sick or disabled relatives or other loved ones, a study by the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies shows. This group is even larger than that of students who care for children.
Young women as well as young adults with a migratory background, irrespective of their gender, are more likely to face the pressures of simultaneously managing care and education. “This huge group of individuals is completely overlooked in the public eye,” says Dr. Anna Wanka, whose research focuses on finding out more about the everyday life of these young people, the challenges they are facing, and on how to support them. Being responsible for an older person often influences not only academic performance, but also the decision for or against university or further education, especially in another city. Those who do decide to continue with their education often have a guilty conscience, feel shame towards peers and lecturers, and face daily hurdles in their efforts to reconcile education and care.
“InterCare” is the first comprehensive research project to take a detailed look at this group. It will start officially in October 2024, from which point onwards it will receive €1.2 million in funding from the Volkswagen Foundation over the course of four years, as part of the “Challenges and Potentials for Europe: Intergenerational Futures” funding line. Project lead Wanka also heads Goethe University Frankfurt’s Emmy Noether Research Group “Linking Ages”, which focuses on the material-discursive practices of un/doing age across the life course.
Faced with a reality of ageing populations in all European countries, Volkswagen Foundation’s funding program primarily targeted research groups that address questions of demographic change, with the stipulation that the institutions in charge of the research come from at least three different European countries. In addition to Anglia Ruskin University in the UK and Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Mönchengladbach-based Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences is also part of the program, represented by Moritz Heß, Professor of Gerontology. A close look at Poland, for example, shows that many professional nursing staff work in western countries, especially Germany, where they earn more money. The resulting shortage of professionals at home puts even greater pressure on relatives there.
The first phase of the study will consist of a quantitative survey in Germany: How many people are actually affected? (How) Do educational institutions address the situation? Where do rules and regulations – including compulsory attendance in laboratories and seminar rooms – make it impossible to join a course? These results will then be compared with the situation in the UK and Poland. As part of a second phase, the project foresees “dyadic interviews”, in which a young person with care responsibilities and the older person being cared for are interviewed both individually and together. “The separate interviews are necessary to allow for the discussion of topics associated with shame, experiences of violence, and restrictions on freedom,” says Wanka. Partly participatory in nature, those joining the project will help shape the course of the study and work together with the researchers to produce a virtual exhibition and a podcast series to raise awareness of the topic.
