Women's Labor Force Activity and Responsibilities for Disabled Dependents: A Study of Families with Disabled Children

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Abstract
Previous research demonstrated that the presence of young children in the home has a negative impact on the market work of the mother. However, the effects of women's responsibilities for the care of disabled family members have rarely been examined. This paper reports the results of a study of the impact of child disability on maternal labor-force activity. Data were gathered from 369 families of children with cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, myelodysplasia or multiple physical handicaps and from 456 randomly selected families with children free of disabilities from the same geographic area. Among two-parent families, child disability interacts with race and family income: It exerts a greater negative impact on maternal labor-force participation of black and low-income families, as compared to white and high-income families. Labor market activity of single mothers does not appear to be significantly affected by child disability either alone or in interaction with income and race.