The Stigmatizing Influence of Learning Disability Labels for Adolescents' Progression through Math Coursework

• In Event: 326 - Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. The Effects of Health and Disability on Educational Outcomes.

Abstract

Learning disability (LD) labels lie at the crux of two central life domains, education and health, and may reproduce disadvantage. Nonetheless, this social problem has received little attention from sociologists. This study uses data on adolescents, teachers, and schools from The Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, as well as multilevel modeling and propensity score techniques, to investigate whether adolescents’ math course attainment is impacted by stigma related to LD labels. In contrast to similarly achieving and behaving adolescents without a disability label, labeled adolescents were less likely to experience progression in their 10th grade math course placements, more likely to have their performance attributed to disability, and less likely to be expected to complete a Bachelor’s degree. Potentially suggesting stigma, decomposition estimates showed the effects of LD labels on the highest math course adolescents attempted by the end of high school were mediated by these early high school math experiences, net of differences in ability and cumulative disadvantage.

Author

• Dara Renee Shifrer, Rice University