Balancing school, work, and family: The impact of Covid-19 on post-secondary student caregivers' school to work transitions.


J Sparks, University of Guelph

Being a caregiver while pursuing post-secondary education can require students to navigate additional social, financial, and emotional complexities, while also meeting academic requirements (van Rhijn, Smit Quosai, and Lero, 2011). For example, post-secondary student caregivers may balance their academic commitments with (including but not limited to), childcare, eldercare, and other family related responsibilities. Further, over the course of their studies, student carers may also carry multiple employment roles as well. While work and family roles can motivate students, research suggests that students with caregiving roles can disproportionately face economic insecurity, difficulties meeting their basic needs, and additional time demands (van Rhijn, Lero, and Burke, 2016; Cruse, Mendez, and Holtzman, 2020). Unfortunately, pandemic realities exasperated the challenges faced by post-secondary student caregivers. Yet, a limited amount of information has been published on post-secondary students who navigate school, work, and family responsibilities within Canadian higher education. The goal of this mixed methods research study is to encourage understanding, discussion, and advocacy in support of those balancing multiple roles as post-secondary students, employees, and caregivers. In particular, this paper presentation will describe student caregivers’ educational and employment experiences pre, during, and post the COVID-19 pandemic. The research findings may be used to inform policies, services, and resources aimed at supporting this equity deserving group. Overall, the presentation will advocate and advance equity, diversity, and inclusion for student caregivers as learners navigating multiple roles and intersectionality.

This paper will be presented at the following session: