Demographic Differences Across Outcome Domains

Youth with disabilities differ in many respects other than the nature of their disability, including such characteristics as age, gender, household income, and race/ethnicity. However, these differences are not associated with strong or consistent differences across outcome domains, although there are some exceptions, as noted below.

• Age
• Gender
• Household Income
• Race/Ethnicity

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Age

Age does not have an independent relationship with the likelihood that youth with disabilities see friends often or enroll in a vocational, business, or technical school, nor are there age differences in the likelihood that youth participate in volunteer or organized community group activities. Similarly, age is not associated with the likelihood of parenting or of being involved with the criminal justice system. However, some differences are evident.

• Age is significantly associated with a 23-percentage-point higher likelihood of employment and with a 12-percentage-point higher likelihood of 2- or 4-year college enrollment, independent of the influences of disability, functioning, and other demographic differences between youth.
• Nineteen-year-olds have experienced the largest drop over time in the proportion living with parents (from 94 percent to 67 percent) and the largest increase in having a checking account (from 8 percent to 43 percent) or personal credit card (from 8 percent to 24 percent).
• The only significant increases in earning a driver's license or learner's permit have occurred among 18- and 19-year-olds, who are more likely than younger peers to have earned those privileges (64 percent and 78 percent, respectively vs. 38 percent among 15- through 17-year-olds).

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Gender

The experiences of boys and girls with disabilities up to 2 years after high school are similar in many, although not all respects. Similarities across genders include their school-leaving status; the likelihood of being engaged in school, work, or preparation for work since leaving high school; current employment rates; and most aspects of independence, including residential arrangements, having driving privileges, using personal financial management tools, and having had or fathered a child. Significant differences are apparent regarding other experiences, however. NLTS2 has found that:

• Girls with disabilities are 6 percentage points more likely to have been enrolled in a 2- or 4-year college since high school than are boys, controlling for other differences between them.
• An increase over time in seeing friends frequently has occurred only among girls with disabilities (from 24 percent to 54 percent). This differential change has eliminated the difference between genders that existed in Wave 1, when boys were found to engage more frequently than girls in this behavior (38 percent vs. 24 percent).
• The significant increases in the likelihood of being stopped and questioned by police other than for a traffic violation and of spending a night in jail that is evident among youth with disabilities as a whole occurs solely among boys. A 16-percentage-point increase brings to 55 percent the rate of being stopped by police among boys, and the 21 percent of boys who had spent a night in jail is a 12-percentage-point increase over the rate in 2001. The increases result in boys being significantly more likely than girls ever to have stayed overnight in jail up to 2 years after high school (21 percent vs. 8 percent).
• Girls with disabilities are significantly less likely than boys to be single; about one fourth are engaged, married, or in a marriage-like relationship. Girls who are living independently are significantly more likely than boys to be supporting themselves on less than $5,000 per year (82 percent vs. 59 percent).

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Household Income

Youth with disabilities who come from households with different income levels have some similar early postschool experiences. Their leisure-time use and social lives have not changed differentially, nor have many aspects of their independence, including their residential arrangements or parenting status. Income level also is unrelated to the likelihood of currently being employed or ever having been arrested, irrespective of other differences between youth. Also, having a better-educated head of household outweighs income in helping explain the variation in the likelihood that youth with disabilities will enroll in 2- or 4-year colleges up to 2 years after leaving high school.

However, youth with disabilities from wealthier households are more likely to be engaged in school, work, or preparation for work; whereas 93 percent of youth with disabilities from families with incomes of more than $50,000 a year are engaged in such activities after high school, 70 percent of youth from families with household incomes of $25,000 or less a year are thus engaged. Similarly, youth with disabilities from wealthier households are more likely than peers from low-income households to have earned driving privileges (79 percent vs. 52 percent) and to have a personal checking account (45 percent vs. 16 percent) or a credit card (26 percent vs. 11 percent).

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Race/Ethnicity

There are no differences across racial/ethnic groups in the likelihood of being engaged in school, work, or preparation for work shortly after high school; enrolling in college or a vocational, business, or technical school; living independently; having active friendships; having had or fathered a child; or ever having been arrested. However, independent of other differences between them, African American youth with disabilities have a 16-percentage-point lower likelihood of current employment than White youth. Also, White youth with disabilities are more likely than African American youth to have driving privileges (78 percent vs. 40 percent) and a personal checking account (40 percent vs. 22 percent).

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