Already shouldering a hefty financial burden, new research indicates that parents of children with autism tend to earn nearly one-third less than those with typically developing children.
After adjusting for educational attainment, location, age and other factors, researchers presenting this week at the International Meeting for Autism Research in San Diego said they found that autism is associated with an average drop in household income of 27 percent, or $17,640 per year.
Even as compared to families with children who had other functional limitations, having a child with autism still resulted in a 20 percent hit to the wallet, the study found.
The reason: mothers of children with autism are less likely to work and when they are employed these moms tend to earn less than others, leaving many families with only one breadwinner.
Those behind the study say they don’t believe that characteristics of autism are to blame for fewer mothers working, but instead cite a lack of supports for families dealing with the developmental disorder.
“Families of children with autism don’t have a care system in place the way that other families do,” said David Mandell of the University of Pennsylvania who worked on the study.
While there are established treatment protocols and support systems in place for children with other types of developmental disabilities, Mandell said parents of children with autism are often left to hobble together an appropriate mix on their own.
“What happens is that the mother drops out of the labor market to become the case manager for the child,” he says.
For the study, Mandell and his colleagues looked at survey data collected between 2002 and 2007 on 47,942 children, 147 of whom had an autism diagnosis. Although a significant number of mothers were affected by whether or not their child had autism, they did not find much difference in employment rate or earnings for fathers.
While the findings are preliminary, the study is among the first to look at the impact of lost income on families who have a child with autism. Previously, most studies looking at the economic implications of the developmental disorder have focused on the direct cost of treatment and other care.
“Previously, most studies looking at the economic implications of the developmental disorder have focused on the direct cost of treatment and other care.” Can you link to those studies?
This study just tells what those of us with children with autism have known for years. My wife and I have 2 boys with ASD. In our community finding daycare is not a possibility. We live in Nebraska which has ranked 49th in access to services for people with disabilities. I think that research should be geared toward better things than a no brainer like this. For the people in the autism community the recession has been going on for much longer than a few years.
I believe part of the issue is that Autism is unpredictable. I work with a couple of groups due to the fact that my daughter is dually diagnosed with Down syndrome and Autism. The group for parents of kids with Down syndrome offers child care during meetings, in general you can figure what to expect from a group of kids with Down syndrome. The group for kids with autism has found that we cannot offer child care because Autism can manifest so amazingly differently from one child to another. I believe meltdowns are the biggest issue, meltdowns can be very different in different children, and primarily what sets them off can be very different and what calms them down can be very different. The training level needed for the volunteers makes it cost restrictive to offer childcare to our group. So yes, the support isn’t there, but in order for that to happen we really need to get more people trained in how to manage behaviors that can be very diverse.
Amen, My son has SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder on the austistic spectrum, along with other issues. Most of these kids have more than one diagnosis, and both my husband and I work full time (My husband actually works two jobs one full and one part time). All of them are decent paying jobs, and we carry insurance but even with insurance the co-pays time off work, other medical issues (not covered or only partially covered adds up ) and we can barely make ends meet. It has ruined our credit (and we had perfect credit before0 WE NEVER GO ON VACATION, rarely eat out (and then it is only fast food) and we scrimp and save everywhere we can. And still struggle. It is sad, and we can’t get any help finacially (and we only ask that they help us cover what insurance doesn’t – so sad) and we know tons of other families just like us. It is hard to work all those hours and still provide for our son especially one with special needs that requires so much more time and energy. It is affecting us and our health. And it is sad when we see others who don’t try and get all kind of assistance. It is not just those with autism it is many different kids/ and adults with disibilities.