ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1645073
This article is part of the Research TopicMental Health Challenges in Vulnerable Groups: Psychological Well-Being, Learning, and Support in Disadvantaged ContextsView all 4 articles
Balancing Care and Academic Goals: How Young Adult Carers Navigate Higher Education
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universite Toulouse-Jean Jaures Laboratoire de Psychologie de la Socialisation Developpement et Travail, Toulouse, France
- 2Universite du Quebec en Outaouais - Campus de Saint-Jerome, Saint-Jérôme, Canada
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Young adult carers (YAC) often face unique challenges in higher education, yet their experiences remain underexplored. The objective of this study was to describe their experiences by comparing YAC with young adults who had an ill relative but were not carers (YANC) and with young adults without a sick relative (YAWSR). Participants included 436 students in higher education aged 18-30 years (122 YAC, 105 YANC and 209 YAWSR). They were asked to complete an online questionnaire about their school experience, the health of their loved ones, and the types of support potentially available to them. The school experience was analyzed using both objective (e.g., number of grades repeated and dropouts) and subjective indicators (i.e., self-report of academic, social, and emotional adjustment in the higher education context). The results of the study indicated that, while YAC did not self-rate their academic and social adjustment more negatively, they reported experiencing more emotional difficulties and a less linear academic trajectory in comparison to their peers in the other two groups. These findings highlight the importance of providing more support for YAC to improve their school experience in higher education, mental health, and future adult life.
Keywords: young adult carers, ill relative, higher education, School experience, study interruptions, psychosocial adjustment
Received: 11 Jun 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Villatte, Biaud, Piché, Habib and Vetri. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Aude Villatte, aude.villatte1@univ-tlse2.fr
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