Child and adult disability in the 2000 Census: disability is a household affair

Survey data indicate that individuals with disabilities in the United States often experience less advantageous economic and social resources than individuals without disabilities. Furthermore, they often reside with other individuals with disabilities in the same household. However, less is known about resource availability when multiple child and adult household members have a disability.

We use child-level data from the 2000 Census to examine the relationship between aggregation of disability in households with children and education, labor force participation, poverty level, and inadequate housing.

We utilize tabular analysis and Kruskal-Wallis tests to examine how resources in education, employment, income, and housing adequacy compare for children with disabilities who are the only member of their household with a disability, children with disabilities who live in a household with at least one other member with a disability, children without disabilities who live in a household where no other member has a disability, and children without disabilities who live in a household where at least one other member has a disability.

Among children without a disability, 86% live in a household in which no other member has a disability. Among children with a disability, 53% live in a household in which no other adult or child has a disability. Poverty, inadequate housing, and low adult education were more than two times more likely - and adult unemployment over five times more likely - in households with multiple members with disability versus households without disability.

There is a high prevalence of aggregation of adults and children with disability in households of children with disability. These households have substantially fewer resources than households who do not have children or adults with disabilities.