(N=number of families) % Employed % full- time Mean Number of Weeks Worked Last Year Mean Number of Months with Current Employer
Children with more than one special need39
Children aged 0 to 5 (N=14,923)40
No special needs (N=13,929) 59.8 64.6 40.4 45.9 One health or disability-related special
need (N=854) 52.7*** 65.8 37.5 38.2
Two health or disability-related special
needs (N=140) 37.9*** 58.5** 33.6*** 24.9***
Children aged 6 to 17 (N=36,625)41
No special needs (N=28,993) 76.9 71.9 45.6 79.4 One health or disability-related special
need (N=4,723) 65.4*** 71.7 37.5*** 65.9***
Two special needs: health condition and a
disability (N=457) 56.0*** 69.1 41.3** 54.9***
Two special needs: a health condition or a disability, plus behavior problems (N=1,844)
63.3*** 72.5 37.0*** 61.8***
Three special needs: health condition,
disability and behavior problems (N=335) 51.0*** 72.5 42.6** 66.3***
Families with more than one child with special needs42 (N=14,578)
Families with child aged 0 to 5 and a child aged 6 to 17 neither who have special needs
57.6 62.0 42.1 57.7
Child aged 0-5 and child aged 6-18, both with health or disability-related special need (N=464)
48.3*** 69.6*** 39.5 46.6***
Child aged 0-5 with health or disability- related special need and child 6-17 with a behavior problem (N=194)
47.4*** 76.1*** 39.1 40.3***
38 *** (p < 0.0001), ** (p < 0.001), and * (p < 0.01). Note: The level of significance is always relative to families with no children with special needs.
39 Recall that the NSAF collects information on only one child aged 0 to 5 and one child aged 6 to 17 from each family. If a family has more than one child in either of the two age categories, one child is selected randomly and information is collected on only that child. Therefore, our analysis of the impact of multiple children with special needs is limited by the data. If a family has two children with special needs within either of the two categories, we are unable to capture this. However, if the family has two children with special needs, one aged 0 to 5 and one aged 6 to 17, we are able to capture this situation.
40 Sample includes those families whose children are all younger than 6 years of age (N=14,923). 41 Sample includes those families whose children are all older than 5 years of age (N=36,625).
42 Sample includes those families with children in both age categories. One child from each age category was randomly selected for data collection purposes.
o Mothers of children 0 to 5:
Among mothers with younger children with no special needs, the employment rate is 59.8%. This compares with 52.7% among mothers with a child who has one health or disability-related special need and 37.9% among mothers with a child with both a health condition and a disability.
While the impact of a child with one special need on the likelihood that the mother works full-time is not significantly different from mothers of “typical” children, there is a statistically significant drop of 6.1% (64.6% compared to 58.5%) in the likelihood of full-time employment among mothers whose young children have multiple special needs.
The impact of a child with multiple needs on the mother’s job stability is quite large and statistically significant. For example, employed mothers of young children with no special needs worked an average of 40.4 weeks over the course of the previous year, compared to 37.5 weeks for mothers of children with one special need and 33.6 weeks for mothers of children with two special needs.
We also find statistically significant and fairly large differences in job retention outcomes. For example, mothers of young children with one special need have been in their current jobs an average of 8 months less than mothers of children with no special needs and mothers of young children with multiple special needs have been in their current jobs an average of 21 months less than mothers of typical children. o Mothers of children 6 to 17:
We obtain similar results on a sample of families whose children are older (aged 6 to 17) and have health or disability-related special needs. We find that employment rates drop about 10% for each additional special need.
Among mothers with older children with both a health condition and a disability, the rate of employment is 56%. This compares with 65.4% for mothers with a child with one health or disability-related special need, and 76.9% for mothers of
“typical” children aged 6 to 17. The rate of employment is 51% among families with children aged 6 to 17 who have three special needs (a health condition, a disability and behavior problems).
However, as is the case with mothers of younger children, we find no statistically significant difference in the likelihood of full-time employment.
Similar to the case of families with younger children, among mothers of older children we find that the more complex the child’s special needs, the lower the mother’s job retention. For example, we find that mothers of children aged 6 to 17 with no special needs have been in their current jobs an average of 13.5 months longer than mothers with children with one special need, and 24.5 months longer than mothers of children with both health and disability-related special needs. Moreover, all these differences are statistically significant to the 99% significance level.
Interestingly, the addition of a behavior problem to health or disability-related special needs does not automatically reduce maternal labor force participation even further. Among mothers with children aged 6 to 17 who have a disability or a health-related need plus behavior problems, the employment rate is 63.3% which is not statistically different from mothers whose children have only one disability or health-related special need (65.4% employed) and is actually higher than mothers whose children have both a health condition and a disability (56%).
The same sort of pattern is found when we examine number of weeks worked over the course of the previous year and job retention. The smaller effects of behavior problems in addition to health and disability-related problems could reflect the fact that mothers of children with complex special needs that include behavioral issues use work outside the home as a respite thereby tempering the negative impact of the additional behavior problem on her employment. It may also reflect the fact that parents of children with health and disability-related special needs are in even greater need of maintaining their employer-provided health insurance (thereby tempering the effect of the addition of a behavior special need.)