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The Social Ecology of Caregiving: Applying the Social–Ecological Model across the Life Course
Open accessAbstract
Family caregivers provide care to people with disabilities, as well as ill and older adults, often with little to no outside assistance from the formal long-term care system. They are the backbone of long-term care, and it is a misconception that the majority of people institutionalize disabled people and older adults in the United States. Youth caregiving is under-examined in the field of public health and is in need of theoretical and practical attention. Building upon the work of Talley and Crews and Bronfenbrenner, we aim to broaden the scope of the discussion around caregiving through the application of the social-ecological model (SEM) to inform research and practice. This paper picks up where they left off, digging deeper into the ecological model to reimagine research, policy, and practices related to youth and young adult caregivers that are rooted in this framework. This application highlights care as embedded in social relations while allowing for an exploration of the ways structural barriers impact the caring unit. Looking holistically at the unit, rather than individuals as service users, provides an opportunity for understanding the interconnectedness of those giving and receiving care. It does so by rendering visible the interdependence of the caring unit, and the myriad structures, which bear down on care at the individual and household levels. This approach runs counter to dominant thinking, which focuses exclusively on the individuals involved in caregiving relationships, rather than considering them as interdependent units of care. This paper provides an analytic contribution, utilizing a narrative composite vignette based on literature and previous research.
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“Results from the qualitative analysis (e.g., “3.1.1 Psychological burden,” “3.1.2 Physical burden”) are consistent with Ornstein and Caruso’s research on family caregiving support systems (75).”
From Caring alone: older adult care burdens, practices, and structural imbalances among China's one-child generation (2025) · cites this paper as [75]
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“As untrained family caregivers, only children are likely to experience prolonged psychological stress and health risks, highlighting the urgent need for external support at the social level (75).”
From Caring alone: older adult care burdens, practices, and structural imbalances among China's one-child generation (2025) · cites this paper as [75]
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Xiang, S., Xiang, H., Ren, Q., & Deng, Q. (2025) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2025.1694636 · Cited by 6
“As untrained family caregivers, only children are likely to experience prolonged psychological stress and health risks, highlighting the urgent need for external support at the social level (75).”
InfluentialGuo, S., Chen, Q., & Chan, K. L. (2025) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-025-23307-w · Cited by 5
Surveillance as Care: Configuring Baby Monitors in the Home
Song, Q.-R., Liu, Y., Zhang, Z.-N., Kou, Y.-B., & Gui, X.-N. (2026) · International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3772318.3791462 · Cited by 4
Ellicott, C., Rubab, S. U., McGowan, A., Neale, B., Bidaran, A., Dewsbery, F., Norman, A., & Lloyd, H. M. (2025) · Healthcare · doi:10.3390/healthcare13030280 · Cited by 3
Determinants of the social risk of caring
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Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives on Barriers to Mental Health Support for Informal Caregivers
Rangel, M. L., Stelzig, D., Enriquez, C. M., & Badr, H. (2026) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph23030325 · Cited by 2
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“Ornstein and Caruso (2024) highlight the value of applying the approach to caregiving across the life course; Paat (2013) highlights how it has been used to strengthen social work with immigrant children; M. Kelly and Coughlan (2019) used constructivist grounded theory analysis to apply the…”
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Access to rights through relations
Mäki‐Petäjä‐Leinonen, A., Ristolainen, H., Issakainen, M., & Tiilikainen, E. (2026) · Oñati Socio-legal Series · doi:10.35295/osls.iisl.2635
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Parental Physical Illness and College Students’ Life Satisfaction: Role of Occupational Balance
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Metadata
- Authors
- Ornstein, M. T., & Caruso, C. C.
- Affiliations
- Sarah Lawrence College (US)
- Wesleyan University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ornstein, Maggie T.
- ORCID
- Caruso, Christine C.
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2024-01-22
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 119
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10815033
- OpenAlex
- W4391100556
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 2
- FWCI
- 16.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Research and Theory › Nursing care and research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving
- Social Sciences › Life-span and Life-course Studies › Aging, Elder Care, and Social Issues
- Keywords
- young adult caregivers, family caregivers, socio-ecological model, long-term care, care relationships, structural barriers to care, caregiver burden, life course, older adults, Bronfenbrenner
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Aged, Family, Humans, Life Change Events, Long-Term Care, Models, Theoretical, Social Environment, United States, Caregivers, Young Adult
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