Survey on Children and Youth in Care in Japan - Civil Service Commissioners and Children's Commissioners

Abstract

The survey aimed to ask welfare workers whether they have young carers or young adult carers who may be caring for family members, what kind of care these children and young people are providing, how it is affecting their learning and life, and what kind of support is available. With the approval of the university's ethical review board, questionnaires were distributed and collected from 530 welfare commissioners and child welfare commissioners in F-city from November to December 2018, and 430 responded. 
 This year, 32 respondents answered that there are such children and young people in the households they are involved with. Approximately one in 16 welfare commissioners and child welfare commissioners, and approximately one in three chief child welfare commissioners, were aware that there are children and young people who they feel are caring for their family members. By grade and age of the young carers and young-adult carers, the majority were in the upper grades of elementary school to junior high school, and there was no difference between the genders, with 40.6% being male and 46.9% being female. The majority of caregivers were mothers and children, and the top reasons for raising children were "parents' illness, disability, mental illness, or hospitalization" and "having younger siblings." More than half of the caregivers had been raising children for three years or more. The effects of care were noted as including new school openings, lateness, and decline in academic performance. This research was influential in the creation of the Carer Support Ordinance.