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Scientific article 21. OCT 2024
  • Children, Adolescents and Families
  • The Social Sector
  • Children, Adolescents and Families, The Social Sector

Concentration of disability in families

Intergenerational transmission or assortative mating?

Authors:

  • Anna Amilon
  • Rikke Fuglsang Olsen
  • Stine Vernstrøm Østergaard
  • Children, Adolescents and Families
  • The Social Sector
  • Children, Adolescents and Families, The Social Sector
Staged photo: Cathrine Kjærø Ulf Ertmann/VIVE
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  • Anna Amilon

    Senior Researcher, PhD (Economics)

    +45 33 48 08 14
    ame@vive.dk
Although studies have established that health and socioeconomic disadvantages often accumulate within families, little is known about the extent to which disability is concentrated within certain families and transmitted across generations. We use retrospective information about growing up with parent(s) or sibling(s) with a disability from the 2020 wave of the representative Survey of Health, Impairment and Living Conditions in Denmark (N = 7709). Building on this data and applying a family life course perspective, we examine if growing up with parent(s) and/or sibling(s) with a disability is associated with 1) having a disability oneself, 2) the probability of having a partner with a disability and 3) the occurrence of disability in the next generation. Our findings demonstrate that the odds of having a disability are higher among individuals who grew up with parent(s) and/or sibling(s) with a disability. While the odds of being partnered are not associated with family members' disabilities, we find a positive association between having grown up with parents with a disability and having a partner with a disability. Moreover, having a child with a disability is positively associated with one's own, parents', siblings' and partner's disabilities. We thus conclude that disability is concentrated within certain families and that both intergenerational transmission and assortative mating contribute to this concentration.

Authors

  • Anna AmilonRikke Fuglsang OlsenStine Vernstrøm Østergaard

About this publication

  • Financed by

    Satspuljereserven
  • Published in

    Advances in Life Course Research
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