‘Young informal carers’ information needs communicated online: Professional and personal growth, finance, health and relationships‘

Author(s): Koya, Kushwanth; Chowdhury, Gobinda; Green, Emma
Publisher: Journal of Information Science
Year Published: 2022
Resource type: Peer Reviewed Research Article

Summary:

This article explores young carers’ information needs communicated over the internet and seeks to understand young carers information seeking characteristics. This study analyses the content of 323 individual posts written between 2010-2019 by young carers on the ‘Young Carers’ message board of Childline and CarersUK’s ‘Young adult carers’ message board support forums. Analysis led to two groupings of young carers online expressions of need: situational and information. Findings suggest that within situational and information needs, four types of needs were most often expressed: personal and professional growth, health (self and care partner), finance, and relationships. Most of the posts were identified as illustrations of current difficult conditions, and less were direct requests for information.

Citation: Koya, K., Chowdhury, G., & Green, E. (2022). Young informal carers’ information needs communicated online: Professional and personal growth, finance, health and relationships. Journal of Information Science, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/01655515221136829

Keywords: Digital health; information needs; information retrieval; information seeking; information technology; young informal carers

Where the data was collected: United Kingdom