The relationship between parental disability and child outcomes: Evidence from veteran Families

We examine the relationship between parental disability and child outcomes in the American Community Survey. We focus on families with veteran parents, for whom parental disability is a direct result of service-related activities and thus is more plausibly exogenous to child outcomes than other form...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inPloS one Vol. 17; no. 11; p. e0275468
Main Authors Lakdawala, Leah K, Bharadwaj, Prashant
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published San Francisco Public Library of Science 09.11.2022
Subjects
Adults
Analysis
Child development
Children
Children & youth
Disabilities
Disability
Disabled parents
Families & family life
Family income
Genetic aspects
Health aspects
Households
Injuries
Labor market
Medicine and Health Sciences
Military service
Parent and child
Parents
Parents & parenting
People and Places
People with disabilities
Physiological aspects
Population
Post traumatic stress disorder
Social aspects
Social Sciences
Veterans
United States
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:We examine the relationship between parental disability and child outcomes in the American Community Survey. We focus on families with veteran parents, for whom parental disability is a direct result of service-related activities and thus is more plausibly exogenous to child outcomes than other forms of parental disability. Using the service connected disability rating (SCDR) as a measure of the severity of veteran disability, we document a gradient in child outcomes with respect to parental disability (even conditional on having a disabled parent). Children with more severely disabled parents are more likely to be late for grade, less likely to be in private school, and more likely to have disabilities themselves. These results lend meaningful insight to broader populations; we find similar associations between parental disability and child outcomes in non-veteran families. We provide evidence consistent with two broad mechanisms: first, parental disability reduces parental labor supply and thus household income (even net of transfers) and second, children—especially older children—allocate time away from work and schooling to provide care for disabled parents.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0275468