Care Work and Paid Work: Gender, Child Disability, and Parental Employment

The prevalence of child disability in the United States has sharply increased over the past 60 years. Caring for a child with a disability can be rewarding and can also lead to emotional and financial consequences for caregivers. This dissertation examined the economic and social effects of raising a child with a disability. The first paper examined how child disability affected mothers' labor market outcomes. I found that the onset of child disability led to decreases in employment, work hours, and earnings among mothers of children with disabilities compared to mothers of children without disabilities. Effects resolved by 4-6 years after child disability onset and were largest among mothers of children with infant-onset disabilities and Black mothers. The second paper assessed how child disability affected gender role attitudes of mothers and the interaction with employment. I hypothesized that child disability would lead to less egalitarian gender role attitudes among mothers of children with disabilities compared to mothers of children without disabilities. Child disability was not associated with changes in gender role attitudes but was associated with decreased full-time employment. Taken together, mothers of children with disabilities had gender role attitudes that were less aligned with their employment behaviors than mothers of children without disabilities. The third study evaluated the effects of state and local paid family leave (PFL) and paid sick leave (PSL) mandates on a comprehensive set of labor market outcomes of parents of children with disabilities. The analysis found that neither PFL nor PSL policies led to changes in labor market outcomes for either mothers or fathers of children with disabilities. This dissertation contributes to existing research on the economic impacts of child disability, finding that mothers of children with disabilities may not be able to maintain previous levels of employment, they do not revise gender beliefs to match reduced levels of employment, and current paid leave mandates do not increase employment. Other policies (for example, more generous Supplemental Security Income, caregiver tax credits, or expanded access to direct payments to family caregivers) may be necessary to support the economic well-being of families of children with disabilities.