We are currently facing a national caregiving crisis. I am one of the 53 million Americans providing unpaid care to a family member with a chronic or life-limiting illness (NAC 2020a). Research typically examines older adults caring for their spouse or partner; however, illness, thus caregiving, occurs at all stages in the lifespan. More than one-third of young adults aged 18-39 years are caregivers (AP-NORC 2018), yet they are underrepresented in caregiving scholarship. Young adult caregivers (YAC) in non-normative patient-caregiver relationships (e.g., siblings) are often left out of literature completely. Despite comprising 17% of caregivers of young adult patients (NAC 2020b) and 7% of caregivers overall (NAC 2020a), sibling caregivers are grouped into the vague “Other” category with friends, in-laws, etc. (Lai et al. 2022; Litwin et al. 2014). Baby boomer trends and increased life expectancy among individuals with disabilities are contributing to a rise in sibling caregivers (Namkung et al. 2017), yet little is known about their unique experience. As such, resources are not typically designed for their needs.
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