The relationship between early disability onset and education and employment

Abstract

The early onset of disability (at birth through young adulthood) can affect a person's employment outcomes in myriad ways. In addition to the direct effect of disability on employment, early onset of disability likely affects the acquisition of education and job skills (human capital). This reduced "investment" in human capital in turn may reduce the individual's employment and earnings prospects throughout their lifetime. If this is the case, people with early onset of disability may be doubly disadvantaged when it comes to later employment prospects.

Disability, employment and earnings: an examination of heterogeneity

“…Consistent with previous evidence in the UK (Berthoud, 2003) and elsewhere (Wilkins, 2004;Loprest and Maag, 2007), information relating to the severity of the disability has a negative effect on the probability of employment. This influence remains important even after controlling for the type, duration and cause of the disability.…”

“…Individuals who experience age onset disability will face a different set of labour market issues, including retaining employment and promotion opportunities. In contrast, Loprest and Maag (2007) and Wilkins (2004), in the only known international studies to examine this issue, find, using cross-sectional data from the US and Australia, respectively, that early disability onset has a positive effect on employment relative to older disability onset. Both studies suggest that this is a result of adaptation.…”

“…Both studies suggest that this is a result of adaptation. Wilkins (2004) argues that disabled youths will have more time and greater incentives to adapt to the disability and Loprest and Maag (2007) add that disabled children can choose careers in which their disability can be more easily accommodated.…”

Disability, education and training

“…As such, those who become disabled later in life are likely to be a non-random group of those with particularly low levels of human capital, contributing to the pattern evident in Table 1. Consistent with this, Loprest and Maag (2007) use US data on the age of disability onset and fi nd very little diff erence in the educational attainment among disabled individuals aged over 45 depending on whether their disability was early (before age 22) or late (aft er age 22) onset. Although no information is available about the timing of disability onset in the 2008 LFS, Table 2 considers highest academic qualifi cations by age and disability.…”

The Reliability of an Education-related Self-efficacy Scale for People with Psychiatric Disabilities

“…People with severe mental illness or psychiatric disabilities experience barriers to commencing, maintaining and completing formal education courses (Best et al 2008;Lopresi and Maag 2007;Megivern et al 2003). These barriers can be overcome by a range of individual and group-based forms of assistance known as supported education.…”