Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 115
CHAPTER 3
making it harder for parents to work and earn a living. One-third of children with disabilities
live in single-parent homes, although it doesn’t always start out that way.67 Married parents
are more likely to separate or divorce within three years after the birth of a child with a disability than are the parents of a child not born with a disability.68
Poverty itself increases the risk that children will develop a disability. Low birth weight,
which closely tracks poverty rates,
is associated with long-term disFigure 3.9 Low-Income Families That Include a Child with a
abilities.69 Stress, especially the
Disability are More Likely to Experience Material
so-called “toxic stress” caused by
Hardships
sustained economic hardship and
Percent of low-income (below 200% of poverty) families with children
family adversity, can cause biologexperiencing material hardships, by children’s disability
ical changes in children that make
them more susceptible to chronic
71%
illness.70 Toxic stress is also associated with cognitive difficulties.
A 2012 study by the American
54%
Psychological Association found,
51%
“The children with a history of poverty and neglect are more likely to
35%
be diagnosed with developmental
delay (60 percent compared to 10
to 20 percent), Attention Deficit/
Hyperactivity Disorder (80 percent
compared to 3 to 7 percent), and
Learning Disability (28 percent
Food-related hardship(s)
Housing-related hardship(s)
compared to 5 percent). Additionally, 100 percent of our sample had
emotional/behavioral disorders,
One or more children has a disability
No child has a disability
compared to 46 percent of the general population.”71
Source: Susan Parish et al (March 2009), “Material Hardships in US Families Raising Children
There have been media reports
with Disabilities: Research Summary and Policy Implications,” UNC School of Social Work,
University of North Carolina.
alleging that parents are asking
doctors to prescribe psychotropic
drugs to their children for emotional/behavioral disorders simply so that they can qualify
for SSI. (Children with disabilities in low-income families may be eligible for SSI if the
disability imposes additional costs on their families.) The allegations were taken seriously
in some quarters, prompting a 2011 request from members of Congress to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate “trends in the rate of children receiving
SSI benefits due to mental impairments such as ADHD, depression and others to identify
the causes of the trends.”72 In June 2012, GAO reported that in fact, children taking psychotropic drugs were more likely to be denied SSI benefits than approved.73 The evidence
shows that the children who are approved do in fact qualify based on their medical conditions; children are approved for SSI only with solid evidence supplied by qualified medical
professionals.
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