Children with Disabilities and Trajectories of Mothers’ Consumer Debt Across the Life Course

• In Event: 418 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Paper Session. Disability over the Life Course

Abstract

Prior research shows that having a child with a disability is economically burdensome for parents—especially mothers—but we know little about whether this burden extends to consumer debt. In this study, we examine the link between having a child with a disability that manifests between the ages of 0-3 and consumer indebtedness across the parents’ life course. We have four key findings. First, we find that having a child with a disability is associated with a substantial increase in indebtedness, and that this association persists net of a range of potential confounders. Second, we find that mothers do not quickly repay this debt and that the childhood disability effect persists across the parents’ life course, such that parents of a child with a disability have different trajectories of consumer debt across the life than do parents of children without disability. Third, we find the association between disability and debt is strongest for 1) disabilities that require medical treatment; 2) major (versus minor) disabilities; and 3) severe mental and other (unspecified and undiagnosed disabilities. Fourth, we find that the association between debt and disabilities is stronger for mothers who have less than or equivalent to a high school degree, compared to mothers who have been to college. The results of this study are informative for understanding the relative strength of the social safety net among parents of children with disabilities, as well as the causes and correlates of rising consumer debt in the U.S.

Authors

• Jason N. Houle, Dartmouth College

• Lawrence Berger, University of Wisconsin-Madison