Traumatic events can affect any child’s health, raising their risk of certain diseases and negative outcomes later in life. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that one subset of kids is much more likely to go through stressful, sometimes health-endangering experiences: those with disabilities.
These children were nearly twice as likely to have experienced the incarceration of a parent or guardian and more than three times as likely to have witnessed or experienced violence, the analysis shows.
The study relied on data from the 2019 National Health Interview Survey and compared reports from a “knowledgeable adult, usually a parent,” of children with disabilities to those reported by the adults who care for children without disabilities.
About 17 percent of children with disabilities were reported to have been a victim of or witnessed violence in their neighborhood, compared with 5.3 percent of their counterparts.
Children with disabilities were also much more likely to have lived with someone who was mentally ill or had severe depression – 21.6 percent vs. 7.5 percent of children without disabilities. And 17.6 percent of children with disabilities had lived with someone with an alcohol or drug problem, compared with 8.6 percent of children without.
While 64.1 percent of children with disabilities had never undergone one of those stressful events, more than 17 percent had undergone one and more than 18 percent had undergone two or more.
Children who have stressful life experiences are at higher risk for conditions such as cancer, diabetes and mood disorders in adulthood. Risk-taking behaviors and socioeconomic challenges such as unemployment or low educational attainment are also higher for those who underwent stressful events as children, and multiple adverse events were associated with worse outcomes.
The disparities in stressful experiences may endanger the ability for the more than 3 million children with disabilities in the United States to participate in society, the researchers say. “Identifying the extent to which children with disabilities are at increased risk will inform policy to support these children and promote their health and full inclusion in society,” health statistician and study author Heidi Ullman told the NCHStats blog.
