Material Hardship in U.S. Families Raising Children with Disabilities

Abstract

Researchers analyzed the 2002 wave of the National Survey of America's Families, conducted by the Urban Institute and Child Trends, and examined material hardship in families raising children with disabilities. Measures of hardship included food insecurity, housing instability, health care access, and telephone disconnection. The research indicated that families of children with disabilities experienced significantly greater hardship than did other families. As family income rose above the federal poverty level, hardship declined sharply for families of children without disabilities but not for families raising children with disabilities. Thus, the U.S. federal poverty level was found to be a particularly poor predictor of hardship for families raising children with disabilities. Finally, among families of children with disabilities, single-mother and cohabiting-partner families particularly were at risk for experiencing severe hardship. This article also discusses policy and advocacy implications.

Measuring Material Hardship among the US Population of Women with Disabilities Using Latent Class Analysis

“…This study indicates that a valid discrete measure of hardship, defined using an empirical classification method, is a promising direction for further research into the unique experiences of hardship among women with disabilities, complementing approaches such as analyses of manifest items (Parish et al 2008) and item counting approaches (Ouellette et al 2004). There are general implications to this approach as well as implications that are specific to either the multidimensional or omnibus approaches.…”

“…Although a growing body of research on material hardship among the general population has emerged, only three studies have investigated the hardship experiences of people with disabilities (Parish et al 2008(Parish et al , 2009She and Livermore 2007). Using the 1996 survey of income and program participation panel data, She and Livermore (2007) found that people with disabilities were more likely than those without impairments to experience material hardship across seven categories of material hardship (e.g., food insecurity, unmet medical needs, and difficulty paying for utilities).…”

Development and Assessment of Effects of De-Stress Training Program on Stress of Mothers with Mentally Disabled Children

“…Some researchers estimate the parental [12,13]. Finally, most of the studies show that stress correlates with a decrease in mental health [14], low life satisfaction, [15] behavioral problems, [16] and possess challenges in economic wellbeing [17].…”

Material hardship in families with children with health conditions: Implications for practice

“…Food insecurity can lead to more health problems, both under and overnutrition (obesity), hospitalizations, and developmental delays in children (Hampton, 2007). Preliminary research suggests that households with children with limiting conditions are at a higher risk of food insecurity compare to households with children without limiting health conditions (Parish, Rose, Grinstein-Weiss, Richman, & Andrews, 2008). A survey of UK families found that 1 in 6 families with a disabled child do not have the food they require (Contact-a-Family, 2012).…”

“…Our research is interested in explaining material hardship as a function of limiting conditions instead, and obviously using more current data. Parish et al (2008), using data collected in 2002 from the National Survey of America's Families, found that households with a child with a disabling health condition are more likely to be food insecure in the previous year, unable to pay rent in the prior year, and more likely to have their phone disconnected than were households with children without disabling conditions. Our study examines many of the relationships evaluated by Parish et al (2008) but does so using more current data on families collected during and after the severe economic downtown and also includes a never previously analyzed dependent variable, utility disconnection.…”