By Victoria Raquel Rojas-Lozano
and Oliva López Sánchez 

Academics FES-Iztacala (UNAM)

Care work has been defined as “the set of activities and relationships that intervene in the satisfaction of the physical and emotional needs of dependent adults and children, and the normative, economic and social frameworks in which they are assigned and developed” (Batthyány & Genta, 2020, p. 223). In the 1960s and 1970s, various disciplines became interested in this phenomenon, but it was not until after 2000 that the debate on the need for a National Care System (NCS) in Latin America and Mexico became present in a context of sociodemographic changes, care crises and gender inequalities (Rea Ángeles et al., 2021).

The National System of Care (CNS) is a set of policies, services, and actions designed to meet the needs of people who require care, as well as those who provide it. This system responds to the current demand for a social reorganization of care that seeks to equitably distribute responsibilities between the State, the market, the community, and families, promoting gender equality and human rights (Álvarez Escobar, 2020). Currently, one of the greatest challenges of these policies in Mexico, as Rea Ángeles et al. (2021) point out, is the design and implementation of comprehensive care models for people in the most vulnerable situations, including young people.

In this context, we want to emphasize the mental and emotional health of young caregivers as a priority issue, as well as the need to implement care policies that protect and support this group. The social and economic contributions of young people are often overlooked despite the responsibilities they assume, a situation that affects their personal development and emotional well-being (Rojas-Lozano and López Sánchez, 2024). For example, burdens such as stress, burnout, and social isolation have a profound impact on their lives, limiting their opportunities for education, employment, health, and leisure.

In Mexico, 30.71 TP3T of the total population are young people aged 12 to 29, of which 5.71 TP3T speak an indigenous language, 2.01 TP3T consider themselves Afro-Mexican, and 8.41 TP3T live with a disability, limitation, or a mental problem or condition (IMJUVE et al., 2021). According to the National Survey for the Care System (ENASIC, 2022), of the total number of people aged 15 and over in the country, 31.7 million (32.0 TP3T) provided care to members of their own household or other households. Of these, 75.1 TP3T were women and 24.9 TP3T were men. Regarding hours per week on care work, women dedicate an average of 37.9, while men, 25.6, which represents a 12-hour difference per week.

Unpaid domestic work and care burdens generate economic, political, and sociocultural inequalities (Federici, 2023). Furthermore, they foster emotional inequalities and impact mental health (Lynch, Baker, & Lyons, 2014). The global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2020 demonstrated that social inequalities based on gender, ethnicity, class, and education generated by the care distribution gap within a social system significantly affected young people (López, Sandoval et al., 2023).

Several studies carried out in Latin America (Bas et al., 2021; Cruz, 2021; Didriksson and Sarraute, 2021; López and Cortijo, 2021; López et al., 2022; Lovón and Cisneros, 2020; Rivera, 2019; Segatore and Seca, 2021 cited in López et al., 2023) have investigated the living conditions of university students. These studies have identified deep gender inequalities that negatively affect the material, psychosocial, and socio-educational conditions of women compared to men in higher education institutions (HEIs).

In this context, women took on multiple domestic and caregiving roles, such as pedagogical supervision of their younger siblings, care of sick or elderly relatives, and other household responsibilities, in addition to their academic duties. While some male students participated in caring for sick relatives, women spent more time on housework, revealing situations of social inequality with significant emotional impacts (González, 2020; López et al., 2023).

Some research, which used psychological scales to establish the relationship between altered emotional states in university students during the pandemic in other regions of the world, shows a direct relationship between emotional conditions and efforts to maintain care demands at home, while continuing to attend to their academic workloads (López et al., 2023). Wan Mohd Yunus et al. (2020) reported that young undergraduate students with economic vulnerabilities presented higher levels of anxiety, stress, and depression. The aforementioned research, together with that conducted by the authors here, shows a greater predisposition among young people to suffer an impact on their mental and emotional health when carrying out care work at home (López et al., 2023).

In light of the above, it is urgent to make visible the social contribution of young people to care work. In this sense, the Central System of Care must address these issues from a non-adult-centric perspective, including the protection of the mental and emotional health of young caregivers. This means ensuring an equitable and sustainable future that involves not only social co-responsibility but also recognition of the contribution that children, adolescents, and young people make to sustaining life. Furthermore, it must reconsider access to economic resources, educational or employment incentives, and the alleviation of emotional burdens through support networks and spaces for caring for their own mental health.

References

Bathyány, K. & Genta, N. (2020). Uruguay: Advances and challenges in research and public care policies. In N. Araujo Guimaraes & H. Hirata (Ed.), Care in Latin America (pp. 219–257). Medifé Foundation.

Federici, S. (2013). Revolution at Ground Zero. Domestic Work, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggles. Dream Dealers.

González, L. (2020). Academic stress in university students associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. R&D Space, Innovation Plus Development, 9(25), 158-179. https://doi.org/10.31644/IMASD.25.2020.a10

INEGI and INMUJERES. (2019). National Time Use Survey (ENUT). INEGI. https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/enut/2019/

INEGI. National Survey for the Care System (2022). INEGI. chrome-extension://kdpelmjpfafjppnhbloffcjpeomlnpah/https://www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/saladeprensa/boletines/2023/ENASIC/ENASIC_23.pdf

IMJUVE, CONAPO y UNFPA (2021). Situación de las personas adolescentes y jóvenes en México. 2021, México: Población de las Naciones Unidas en México, Instituto Mexicano de la Juventud y Consejo Nacional de Población. Disponible en: https://mexico.unfpa.org/es/publications/situacio%CC%81n-de-las-personas-adolescentes-y-jo%CC%81venes-de-m%C3%A9xico [12 de septiembre de 2023].

López, O., Sandoval, E.P., González, E., & Robles, A.L. (2023). Emotional management of university students in the face of academic-domestic-paid work during COVID-19. Iberoforum, Journal of Social Sciences, New Era, 3(2), 1-36, Dossier / Articles and Essays, e000316. https://doi.org/10.48102/if.2023.v3.n2.316

Lynch, K., Baker, J., & Lyons, M. (Eds.). (2014). Affective Equality. Love, Care, and Injustice. Morata.

Rea Ángeles, P., Montes de Oca Zavala V., and Pérez Guadarrama K. (2021) Care policies with a gender perspective. Mexican Journal of Sociology, 83(3), 547-80. https://doi.org/10.22201/iis.01882503p.2021.3.60132.

Romero Almodovar, M., Rausky Ndrico ME., Moreno, N., Sepúlveda, I., & Genta, N. (2022). “Gender, care, and youth: Equity gaps, challenges, and paths to advance towards greater co-responsibility in Latin America and the Caribbean. Dancing in the mists.” In Dancing in the mists. Gender and youth in unequal environments in Latin America and the Caribbean. Mexico: El Colegio de México. https://ri.conicet.gov.ar/handle/11336/218313.

Rojas-Lozano, V.R., and López Sánchez O. (2024). Socioemotional processes of UNAM nursing students in COVID-19 contexts. Convergencia Journal of Social Sciences 31, 1-28. https://doi.org/10.29101/crcs.v31i0.22251.

Wan Mohd Yunus, WMA, Badri, SKZ, Panatik, S.A., and Mukhtar, F. (2021). The unprecedented movement control order (lockdown) and factors associated with the negative emotional symptoms, happiness, and work-life balance of Malaysian university students during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 566221. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.566221

Álvarez Escobar, I. (2020) The social organization of care in light of COVID-19. An analysis for Latin America and the Caribbean. San Salvador, El Salvador: Feminist Economics for Oxfam. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d03PM_pH57H4nWn838zBcesAM-BkmKU1/view.