Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Data from a longitudinal national cohort study was used to test associations between young caregiving and self-harming and suicidal behaviours. METHODS: We used data from Waves 6-8 (2014-2018) of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children to assess the effect of 'core' caregiving activities (e.g. personal care, assistance moving around) on suicidal and self-harming behaviours. Care activities at 16-17 years were classified as core caregiving, non-core caregiving and no caregiving. Five self-harming and suicidal measures, collected at age 18/19 years, were used to form two outcomes: thoughts (of self-harm or suicide, or plan to suicide) and behaviours (self-harm, suicide attempt), operationalised as binary variables. Analyses were carried out using augmented inverse probability treatment weighting, adjusting for potential confounders, on complete case data. RESULTS: Core caregiving was associated with higher levels of suicidal and self-harming behaviours compared no caregiving, with an average treatment effect (ATE) of 0.07 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.02, 0.12), equating to a risk ratio of 1.86 (95% CI = [1.21, 2.45]). The ATE of core caregiving on thoughts of suicide or self-harm (compared to non-caregiving) was 0.05 (95% CI = [-0.00, 0.11]), equating to a risk ratio of 1.26 (95% CI = [0.97, 1.56]). There was no evidence of an association between non-core care and any outcomes tested. Sensitivity analyses confirmed main findings. DISCUSSION: Core caregiving is associated with elevated risks of self-harm among young carers, underlining the crucial need to better identify and support young carers to mitigate these adverse outcomes.