How Children with Special Health Care Needs Affect the Employment Decisions of Low-Income Parents

Abstract

These results indicate that only a specific subset of children with special needs present difficulties for low-income parents' work. This suggests that policies to help low-income single parents of children with disabilities move into work should target this specific subset of children with special health care needs.

Using Population-Based Survey Data to Monitor the Health of Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs and Disabilities

“…Although the Screener questions were not repeated in subsequent years, efforts have been made to develop an algorithm to replicate the CSHCN Screener based on core and sample child questions (Davidoff 2004).…”

“…For the most part, survey measures of disability, functional limitation, or health consequences have avoided one aspect of disability that defies operationalization-increased risk (see Loprest and Davidoff 2004). Although the MCHB definition of children with special health care needs includes children who are at risk for having spe-cial health care needs, the CSHCN Screener does not account for children who do not currently have SHCN.…”

“…Amy Davidoff published a report describing development of a measure of CSHCN, which could be applied to NHIS data in years when the CSHCN Screener was not included (Davidoff 2004). Using data from 1997, 1999, and 2000 NHIS, survey items were identified and threshold values assigned with the goal of replicating the content and logic of the CSHCN Screener.…”

“…The impact of CSHCN on low-income parents' decisions about employment was the subject of a study using a pooled sample from the 1999 and 2000 NHIS of 4,700 single-parent families with income below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (Loprest and Davidoff 2004). The algorithm described above (Davidoff 2004) was used in the combined 1999-2000 NHIS to identify families in which the sampled child had SHCN ( n = 752).…”

Children with Special Health Care Needs: Comparison of the Effects of Home Care Setting, Prescribed Pediatric Extended Care Setting, and Long-Term Care Setting on Child and Family Health Outcomes and Health Care Service Use

“…In families who spend 11 or more hours a week caring for their CSHCN, 19% live in poverty compared to 4% living in families with higher incomes (HHS, 2007). However, Loprest & Davidoff (2004) found that families whose CSHCN had activity limitations were significantly less likely to work and worked fewer hours. Families caring for children with more severe conditions at home were more likely to report financial and employment problems (Kuhlthau et al, 2005;Rupp & Ressler, 2009;Okumura, Van Cleave, Gnanasekaran & Houtrow, 2009).…”