Colleges should identify which students are most likely to be caregivers and design policies to help minimize emotional and academic risks they face, according to new research published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, a peer-reviewed academic journal. Researchers working with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill surveyed over 7,500 undergraduate and graduate students and found that 5.6% identified as caregivers. Specifically, 3.2% cared for someone who was chronically ill or aging, such as a parent or grandparent, and 2.9% cared for a minor, with some overlap between the two groups.
Caregiving students were disproportionately women, graduate students, financial aid recipients and were enrolled part time.
