Families/households with disabled children have a high risk of living in poverty because of the considerable additional expenses incurred in caring for their children, special barriers in entering or retaining employment, and multiple disadvantages in many areas of their lives. In the United Kingdom, many studies have focused on the differences in family/households income, work participation, and medical expenditures between families/households with disabled children and families/households without disabled children (Gordon, Parker, Lougran, & Heslop, 2000). Their findings become important issues on designing an effective social policy to support the lives of disable children. However, less is known about the lives of families/households with disabled children in the United States. Studies on the disabled children in the United States are limited to the examination of the prevalence of disabled children by income class (Lee, Sills, & Oh, 2002).

This study focused on the followings; 1> the differences in social demographic backgrounds between households with disabled children and families without disabled children, 2> the differences in households income, earnings, and work participation of parents between two groups, and 3> the effect of having disabled children on the households income, earnings, and work participation of parents

Sample of the study was 10071 households with 19750 children from SIPP 2001 wave 5 and its disability topical module. Among them, 13.5 percent of households had disabled child(ren). Disabled children were defined to children under 18 years old receiving special education or having physical/mental/learning conditions limiting regular school work or ordinary activities. After comparison of social demographics and economic status between two groups by t-tests, logistic regression on work participation of parents, and tobit regression on log of households total earnings were conducted with having disabled children as independent variables, and social demographics as control variables.

This study found that there were significant differences of households income, earnings, and work participation of parents between two groups (p<.001). Total earnings of households with disabled children were 18% less than those of households without disabled children. Prevalence of full time work of parents with disabled children was 15% less than that of parents without disabled children. With controlling social demographic differences, followed regressions indicated that having disabled children was significant factor predicting lower total households income and work participation (p<.001). The study also found that the age of disabled children and the number of household members were important factors predicting work participation of parents (p<.01).

This study clearly showed a significant gap between the economic status of households with or without disabled children. It suggested evidence of disadvantage and social exclusion for disabled children. To support the households with disabled children, appropriate and affordable childcare strategy for disabled children should be built. Related issues and implications will be presented.

Gordon, D., Parker, R., Loughran, F. & Heslop, P. (2000) Disabled children in Britain: A reanalysis of the OPCS disability surveys. The Stationery Office, London, UK, Lee, S., Sills, M., & Oh, G. (2002) Disabilities among children and mothers in low-income families, Research-in-Brief (#D449), Institute for Women's Policy Research