Young adult carers are young people (usually between 16 and 25 years of age) who provide unpaid care for family members or friends with health problems. Young adult carers are thought to make up between 2-8% of young adults worldwide. Their caring duties can conflict with important life choices as they grow into adulthood. Many have little support. They can become stressed, isolated and unhappy, with poor mental health.

Because mental health problems often develop during young adulthood, it is important to help young adult carers maintain their wellbeing. Wellbeing is a term that describes positive aspects of health such as happiness, contentment and resilience. Having good wellbeing is important in helping us to maintain good health and cope with life’s difficulties.

What we already know

Previous research has led to general consensus that engaging in art can benefit peoples’ wellbeing. This is a two-way street: creativity and wellbeing are often interdependent. When we feel safe and relaxed, we tend to be more creative. When we become deeply absorbed in creative activities we may experience a feeling of ‘flow’ which further enhances our mood and enables us to see different perspectives.

Different types of art have different impacts, and visual art has some unique characteristics. The saying ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ reflects the strong emotional impact of an image. Visual art offers wordless communication and catharsis for those who struggle to talk. Doing art in groups can have added benefits such as social bonding, respite and relaxation. These benefits are described in studies with different groups of people, including marginalised youth and older caregivers. 

What we don’t know

The link between group visual art and wellbeing has not yet been studied with young adult carers. Art-for-wellbeing studies have mostly focused on high income countries, and the people taking part have not been given much involvement in how the study is done. I aim to find out what it means to young adult carers of different cultures to take part in visual art groups, particularly in relation to their sense of wellbeing. In doing so I am asking the following questions:

• How do young adult carers think and feel about taking part in visual art groups in relation to their wellbeing?
• What do young adult carers in different cultures think about art, wellbeing and caregiving, and how does this relate to existing theories?
• What are the implications of offering participants more involvement in the research?

To answer these questions I am working with carer’s charities and creative organisations to run four art projects. These projects involve visual art activities and research activities to find out how young adult carers experience taking part in art groups. Two groups will be in Nigeria and two in the UK, to explore how visual art activities work in different places and cultures. As well as taking part in art activities, young adult carers will be invited to be co-researchers. They will be able to take part in the research and give us their own insights about what it is like to be involved in art and research. The young adults and I will record and collect data in a variety of ways including taking photos, recording videos, writing or drawing in a journal, and doing interviews. The staff running the art activities will also be invited to take part in interviews.

Each art project will be looked at as a ‘case study.’ It will be carefully planned using what we know about art, wellbeing and caregiving, so the activities are suited to the local culture and environment and the young adult carers are likely to benefit. The data we generate will be qualitative, focusing on meaning rather than measurement. The young adults will have a choice over how they generate this data. Such an approach has been found to work well with marginalised young people. It can also help reduce the Western bias present in many studies about art and wellbeing.

The research aims to benefit young adult carers directly through taking part in art and research activities. It also hopes to benefit them indirectly by sharing the findings with health and care decision-makers.

Updates

November 2024. Nigeria Visit. I spent one month in south-west Nigeria, hosted by the University of Ibadan. I learned about ethical methods of conducting fieldwork with marginalised populations. I had the opportunity to meet several young caregivers and talk about their caregiving responsibilities and needs, and about attitudes to caregiving in Nigerian society. I also met with a range of academic experts in Ibadan and other higher education institutions. We discussed Nigerian perspectives on wellbeing and caregiving, as well as Nigerian art traditions, materials and techniques. This experience provided a valuable grounding for my fieldwork. Many thanks to the staff at the University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University and Ibadan polytechnic for their generosity in hosting me, and to the young adult caregivers and local arts experts for sharing their time and experience.

January 2025. UK Fieldwork. I am working with project partners to recruit young adult caregivers and plan art projects in the UK. This phase of fieldwork will run from February to May.

May 2025. UK Fieldwork. I have had the pleasure of working with two groups of young adult carers doing visual art projects. One group was in south-west England with the help of a local Young Carers charity. The other group was in London with the generous support of arts charity Create, and a local carer’s hub. We experimented with a variety of art media including graffiti art, collaborative painting, watercolour and lino printing. The young adult carers created some beautiful pieces of art to take home, and their collaborative artworks have been displayed at different venues. The young adult carers were co-researchers during the art projects and documented their experiences through photos, videos, journals and group conversations. This has generated valuable data for the study. I am currently interviewing the young adult carers and co-workers to learn more about their experiences of doing visual art in a group context.

About Galina

Educational background and interests

I have practised as a professional artist for 20 years, including creating community murals and running workshops for a variety of groups. During the Covid19 lockdowns I had the privilege of running art clubs for a group of young adult carers. I also completed a Psychology MSc. These experiences sparked my interest in how visual art can help people to escape, relax, create and socialise. My subsequent work as a psychology researcher in Warwick Medical School led to the opportunity to study art and wellbeing with young adult carers for a PhD.

Contact details

Email galina.c.gardiner@warwick.ac.uk 

Useful links 

Young Carers Alliance. A network of over 200 organisations and 700 individuals committed to improving the lives of young carers, young adult carers and their families. https://carers.org/young-carers-alliance/young-carers-alliance

Create. The UK’s leading charity empowering lives, reducing isolation and enhancing wellbeing through the creative arts. https://createarts.org.uk/

Arts in Medicine. A Nigerian-based charity providing artistic and creative interventions to bolster the health and well-being of community members. https://artsinmedicineprojects.org/ 

Publications

Gardiner, G., Eli, K., Huxley, C. J., Fothergill, R., Perkins, G. D., Smyth, M. A., ... & Slowther, A. M. (2024). Negotiating grey areas: an interview-based analysis of paramedic uncertainty and decision-making in cardiac arrest events. BMC Emergency Medicine, 24(1), 154.

Huxley, C., Reeves, E., Kearney, J., Gardiner, G., Eli, K., Fothergill, R., ... & Griffiths, F. (2024). Relatives’ experiences of unsuccessful out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation attempts: a qualitative analysis. BMC Emergency Medicine, 24(1), 208.

Eli, K., Huxley, C. J., Gardiner, G., Perkins, G. D., Smyth, M. A., Griffiths, F., & Slowther, A. M. (2024). Ethical issues in termination of resuscitation decision-making: an interview study with paramedics and relatives of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest non-survivors. BMJ open, 14(11), e085132.