Dual-Earner Parents With Disabled Children

Abstract

Family strategies for caregiving and income generation are examined in a qualitative study of employed parents of disabled children in the United Kingdom. Four family patterns for working and caring emerged: modified single earner, one-and-a-half earners, dual earners, and flexible dual earners. A number of social, economic, and ideological factors contributed to decision making for these families. Gender expectations and related ideology of caring were usually the most salient, coloring the meanings ascribed to other influencing factors. Gender assumptions in the wider context underpin the difficulties many families experience in obtaining formal supports. The authors argue that flexible community-based and employer supports are crucial to help parents with disabled children to work and care. Beyond this, however, strategies that challenge gender expectations can extend the range of options available to parents, whereas more traditional approaches perpetuate inequalities and family hardship.

Working and Caring for a Child with Chronic Illness: Challenges in Maintaining Employment

“…One of the important avenues where crucial support can be provided is at the workplace, through employers. As the survival rates of children with chronic illness improve (Gibson 1995) and more parents enter into the work force (Lewis et al 2000), it is clear that employers can no longer be inconsiderate and unsympathetic to these parents and ignore their needs. It is critical that organizations be educated and made aware of the numerous challenges confronting parents of children with chronic illness who are working full time and realize that their support needs are far greater and more complex than other parents.…”

“…These include offering flexible working hours, allowing changes of shifts on short notice, providing easier access to leave entitlements, allowing leave entitlements to be used for caring duties, allowing parents to leave work during emergencies, offering greater flexibility and entitlements for casual employees, providing informal support and offering professional counseling at work. In addition to providing these services, organizations should also look beyond the workplace and explore the possibilities of providing greater support, both informal and formal, within the community (Lewis et al 2000). Having affordable and appropriate childcare and greater flexibility among heath care and other professionals can enable these parents to develop appropriate strategies to manage their multiple commitments.…”

“…Furthermore, in recent years, several demographic trends have impacted on the caring responsibilities of these parents. The rise in single-parent families (Bianchi 2000; Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2004), the increase in women employed outside the home (United States Bureau of the Census 1992; ABS 2004) and the rise of dual-earning families (Googins 1991;Hughes 1998;Lewis et al 2000) have increased the number of parents who are working and caring for a child with a chronic illness. For these parents, coordinating their work and caring responsibilities can be extremely demanding in terms of time, energy and commitment which can affect their employment.…”

“…The main limitations of the existing studies have been the lack of focus on parents who are working full time as most have either not stressed this criteria (Cuskelly et al 1998;Thyen et al 1999;Einam and Cuskelly 2002;Hedov et al 2002;Leiter et al 2004) or have lacked clarity as to whether the parents are working full time or part time (Lewis et al 2000). Other limitations have been: the focus on specific chronic conditions only (Freedman et al 1995;Shearn and Todd 2000) and the lack of any generalizable findings.…”

Maternal employment trajectories and caring for an infant or toddler with a disability

“…Furthermore, these mothers tend to find mainstream child care services to be unsuitable or unavailable for children with disabilities (Shearn and Todd 2000;Powers 2001;Porterfield 2002). They are also more susceptible to post-natal stress and depression and often face stronger gendered expectations to assume full-time caregiving responsibilities (Kimmel 1998;Lewis, Kagan, andHeaton 2000, Kearney andGriffin 2001;Baker, McIntyre et al 2003;Gordon, Rosenman, andCuskelly 2007, Rosenzweig et al 2008). Thus, while many mothers, after child birth, continue to be affected by societal pressures as well as structural and practical barriers (Waldfogel 1998;Anderson, Binder, and Krause 2003), mothers with a disabled infant or toddler may be constrained to a greater extent.…”