‘young carers in japan: reliability and validity testing of the bbc/university of nottingham young carers survey questionnaire and prevalence estimation in 5000 adolescents’ 

Author(s): Kanehara, Akiko; Morishima, Ryo; Takahashi, Yusuke; Koike, Haruna; Usui, Kaori; Sato, Shun-ichi; Uno, Akito; Sawai, Yutaka; Kumakura, Yousuke; Yagishita, Sho; Usami, Satoshi; Morita, Masaya; Morita, Kentaro; Kanata, Sho; Okada, Naohiro; Yamasaki, Syudo; Nishida, Atsushi; Ando, Shuntaro; Koike, Shinsuke; Shibuya, Tomoko; Joseph, Stephen; Kasai, Kiyoto
Publisher: Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Reports
Year Published: 2022
Resource type: Peer Reviewed Research Article

Summary:

The concept of young carers has been expanding in Japan. This article focuses on outlining the number of young carers in Japan, using a survey scale that could be compared internationally. This study translated the BBC/University of Nottingham Survey to Japan and was distributed as a school-based survey among 5000 adolescents in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Findings suggested that the prevalence of young carers was 7.4%, similar to numbers reported in Western countries. Also, young carers held higher scores for prosocial behaviour and emotional symptoms compared to non-young carers. The Young Carers Scale Japanese version (YCS-J) was determined to be a reliable and valid instrument for further understanding the situation of young carers in Japan.

Citation:Kanehara, A., Morishima, R., Takahashi, Y., Koike, H., Usui, K., Sato, S., Uno, A., Sawai, Y., Kumakura, Y., Yagishita, S., Usami, S., Morita, M., Morita, K., Kanata, S., Okada, N., Yamasaki, S., Nishida, A., Ando, S., Koike, S., … Kasai, K. (2022). Young carers in Japan: Reliability and validity testing of the BBC/University of Nottingham young carers survey questionnaire and prevalence estimation in 5000 adolescents. PCN Reports, 1(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/pcn5.46

Keywords: Japan, prevalence, reliability, validity, young carers

Where the data was collected: Tokyo, Japan