Trial lecture: Families of disabled children’s experiences with the service system intended to support them.
The ordinary opponents are:
- First opponent: Researcher Jan Tøssebro, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
- Second opponent: Professor Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
- Leader of the committee: Associate Professor Sigrid Elise Wik, OsloMet
The leader of the public defense is Professor Dawit Shawel Abebe, OsloMet.
The main supervisor is Professor Idunn Brekke, OsloMet.
The co-supervisors are Professor Åsmund Hermansen, OsloMet and Associate Professor Pål Joranger, OsloMet.
Thesis abstract
There is a lack of detailed insights into the long-term employment and health consequences of raising a child with a disability and the associated mechanisms.
This doctoral thesis aims to enhance the understanding of the indirect costs associated with caring for a child with a disability. Using a large national registry in Norway, it examined how child disability impact parental employment and health over time.
Article 1
The dissertation consists of three articles. Article 1 showed how raising a child with a disability has a negative effect on parents’ employment participation, working hours and labour earnings.
The negative employment consequences were more pronounced among mothers than fathers, and among parents caring for children with more severe disability. Caring for children with disabilities had little impact on fathers’ employment outcomes.
Article 2
The findings of article 2 showed mothers of children with disabilities experienced higher sick absence days than other mothers, even after controlling for occupational exposures.
Interestingly, the analyses demonstrated differences in sick absences days between the two groups of mothers were not influenced by their levels of mechanical or psychosocial occupational exposures.
Article 3
Article 3 showed how caring for a child with disability reduces the mother’s probability of returning to work after childbirth, even after adjusting for sociodemographic and job-related characteristics.
Moreover, the analyses showed that educational level, divorce status and mechanical job exposures had differential impact on return to work between mothers with and without a child with a disability.
Overall findings
Overall, the findings provide suggestive evidence that the observed substantial and stable difference in employment and sickness absence between parents of children with and without disabilities can be related to the extraordinary caregiving responsibilities.
More specifically, mothers of children with disabilities experience a more pronounced child penalty even in countries like Norway, where welfare support for this group of mothers is relatively robust and extensive compared with other countries.
The results draw attention to the need for more support for mothers of children with disabilities to achieve a better work–life balance.
