[The education and occupational status of young adults damaged by thalidomide]

In 1985, 517 of the 2,486 thalidomide-affected Germans were interviewed by mail questionnaire concerning their educational and vocational situation. 250 usable returns were received, and the sample was found to correspond to the overall thalidomide-affected population in terms of age, sex, and residence, with the exception however of above-average social status and educational levels. 49.4% of the interviewees were gainfully employed, 23.7% students; 17.2% however were unemployed, undergoing retraining, or working in a workshop for the disabled. Contrasted to the German population as a whole, our sample included more university graduates and workers in service sector occupations, and fewer in the crafts or in clerical occupations. Women tended more towards social occupations, men more towards technical ones. On account of their disablement, many of our interviewees were inclined to accept white-collar employment, because their desired vocational objectives had been inaccessible to them due to purely technical difficulties or problems related to rejection by others. 80% nonetheless declared themselves content with their situation, only those in a workshop for the disabled were less satisfied on an average. Contentness was found to be linked more with job satisfaction than with the extent of disablement. About one third of our sample lived with their parents, only four in residential accommodation. More than 75% could be considered independent and needing no outside assistance, with the same share holding a driver's licence. In 90%, the majority of private or occupational contacts, or even all of them, were maintained with nondisabled people. More than 80% considered themselves financially and socially equal to their fellow workers.