Impact of Parental Welfare Participation

Abstract

Pursuing postsecondary education is one of the most important human capital investments signaling higher worker productivity leading to improved employment, especially in the contemporary knowledge-based U.S. economy (Dunn, 2013). Despite the devastating impact of the Great Recession of 2007 on the overall job market, individuals with a college degree were less likely to lose their current jobs and were more likely to find new jobs, highlighting the mitigating role of postsecondary education during adverse labor market conditions (Carnevale, Jayasundera, & Cheah, 2013). Postsecondary education offers similar advantages, as well as protections from economic shocks for youth with disabilities as they transition from school to work (Kaye, 2010). In the midst of the Great Recession, Fogg, Harrington, and McMahon (2010) reported that nearly 60% of individuals with disabilities who had a postsecondary education degree were employed, compared with a 34% employment rate for their peers with just a high school degree. Utilizing a prospective cohort of young vocational rehabilitation consumers, Flannery, Yovanoff, Benz, and Kato (2008) demonstrated that participating in short-term college training improved their likelihood of employment and higher wages, compared with their peers who did not participate in college training. Furthermore, Madaus (2006) demonstrated in a follow-up post-college study that youth with disabilities were employed at the rate of their peers without disabilities and earned salaries, including benefits, that are equivalent to any non-disabled worker in the United States. These young adults also had higher levels of satisfaction with their employment compared with their peers with disabilities nationally (Madaus, Zhao, & Ruban, 2008). Data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) confirmed that a higher proportion of youth with disabilities were pursuing postsecondary education in 2005 compared with findings from its last iteration conducted in the 1990s (Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Garza, & Levine, 2005). Despite these encouraging trends and policy/program supports from initiatives such as the reauthorization of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HOEA), youth with disabilities are 7% less likely to pursue postsecondary education, compared with their peers without disabilities, 8 years after exiting secondary school (Newman et al., 2011). Several individual-and program-level factors have been described as predictors for successful enrollment in postsecondary education for youth with disabilities. At the individual-level, the type and severity of disability is correlated with the likelihood of enrollment in postsecondary 522093C DEXXX10.