Disability Is Not a Burden: The Relationship between Early Childhood Disability and Maternal Health Depends on Family Socioeconomic Status

• Published in: Journal of health and social behavior Vol. 64; no. 3; pp. 354 - 369
• Main Author: Bixby, Laurin E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-09-2023; American Sociological Association
• Subjects: Childhood; Children; Children with disabilities; Disability; Families & family life; Health disparities; Health research; Health risks; Health status; Inequality; Maternal characteristics; Mothers; People with disabilities; Policy making; Poverty; Socioeconomic Disparities; Socioeconomic status; Socioeconomics; Well being; ableism; health; poverty; family; disability
• ISSN: 0022-1465; 2150-6000
• DOI: 10.1177/00221465231167560

Narratives rooted in ableism portray disabled children as burdens on their families. Prior research highlights health disparities between mothers of disabled children and mothers of nondisabled children, but little is known about how socio-structural contexts shape these inequities. Using longitudinal data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n = 2,338), this study assesses whether the relationship between early childhood disability and maternal health varies by household socioeconomic status (SES). Findings reveal that, on average, mothers of children disabled by age five report worse health than mothers of nondisabled children; however, this pattern is only evident among lower SES mothers and disappears for higher SES mothers. Contextualizing the findings within the systemic ableism literature highlights how—instead of portraying disabled children as burdens on their families—scholars and policymakers should focus on how ableism and poverty burden disabled people and their families in ways that pattern health risks.