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Perceptions and Expectations of Youth With Disabilities  (NLTS2)
NCSER 2007-3006
September 2007

Table 15.  Reported extent of youth's reliance on family and friends, by disability category

Reliance for support Learning disability Speech/ language impairment Mental retardation Emotional disturbance Hearing impairment Visual impairment Orthopedic impairment Other health impairment Autism Traumatic brain injury Multiple disabilities Deaf-blindness
Percent / standard error
Youth rely on parents:                        
A lot 59.9 62.6 75.6 62.0 57.8 68.5 73.8 59.1 68.9 61.7 82.1 68.1
(4.19) (4.32) (4.99) (4.53) (6.06) (5.87) (5.05) (4.62) (6.89) (8.78) (5.67) (8.50)
A fair amount 22.9 22.8 7.3 19.4 21.2 18.9 13.3 23.0 13.4 14.4 9.2 17.1
(3.59) (3.75) (3.02) (3.69) (5.02) (4.95) (3.90) (3.96) (5.07) (6.34) (4.27) (6.87)
Just some 9.7 6.8 7.8 8.5 6.8 6.6 9.0 6.4 12.7 15.9 3.4 10.7
(2.53) (2.25) (3.12) (2.60) (3.09) (3.14) (3.29) (2.30) (4.96) (6.61) (2.68) (5.64)
Not too much 7.5 7.8 9.3 10.1 14.2 6.0 4.0 11.4 5.0 8.0 5.3 4.2
(2.25) (2.39) (3.38) (2.81) (4.28) (3.00) (2.25) (2.99) (3.25) (4.90) (3.31) (3.66)
Youth rely on friends:                        
A lot 41.2 46.5 32.1 37.9 31.6 47.7 43.1 38.7 22.6 52.7 35.6 21.4
(4.22) (4.49) (5.44) (4.53) (5.71) (6.29) (5.75) (4.57) (6.30) (9.02) (7.10) (7.48)
A fair amount 28.5 22.1 12.2 19.8 28.0 25.4 15.7 19.7 12.7 21.5 19.1 36.3
(3.87) (3.73) (3.81) (3.72) (5.51) (5.48) (4.22) (3.73) (5.02) (7.42) (5.83) (8.77)
Just some 12.5 13.8 22.8 17.1 18.5 10.5 21.8 19.6 32.0 12.0 15.0 23.2
(2.84) (3.10) (4.88) (3.52) (4.77) (3.86) (4.79) (3.72) (7.03) (5.87) (5.30) (7.70)
Not too much 17.9 17.6 32.9 25.1 21.8 16.4 19.4 22.0 32.7 13.9 30.2 19.2
(3.29) (3.43) (5.47) (4.05) (5.07) (4.66) (4.59) (3.89) (7.07) (6.25) (6.81) (7.19)
Youth rely on siblings:                        
A lot 36.9 35.4 45.6 42.9 30.6 36.9 36.3 31.4 25.2 41.4 47.4 26.6
(4.29) (4.37) (5.95) (4.91) (5.82) (6.55) (5.76) (4.59) (6.75) (9.27) (7.68) (8.24)
A fair amount 24.2 23.3 16.2 15.1 23.7 23.5 13.8 16.9 20.7 19.5 23.7 24.5
(3.81) (3.86) (4.40) (3.55) (5.37) (5.76) (4.13) (3.70) (6.30) (7.45) (6.54) (8.02)
Just some 15.8 14.1 12.0 11.4 24.0 19.6 23.0 22.1 18.9 11.3 7.5 20.0
(3.24) (3.18) (3.88) (3.15) (5.39) (5.39) (5.04) (4.10) (6.08) (5.96) (4.05) (7.46)
Not too much 23.1 27.1 26.1 30.6 21.7 20.0 27.0 29.6 35.1 27.8 21.4 28.9
(3.75) (4.06) (5.25) (4.57) (5.21) (5.43) (5.31) (4.51) (7.42) (8.43) (6.31) (8.45)
Youth rely on a boy- or girlfriend:                        
A lot 32.6 32.7 30.2 37.3 25.1 31.5 35.4 36.3 18.8 39.5 38.5 29.4
(4.22) (4.52) (5.88) (4.95) (5.63) (6.77) (5.83) (4.93) (6.91) (9.65) (7.83) (8.59)
A fair amount 25.8 20.9 20.1 23.0 25.6 23.1 12.5 18.4 11.1 13.7 14.8 13.7
(3.94) (3.92) (5.14) (4.31) (5.67) (6.14) (4.03) (3.97) (5.56) (6.79) (5.71) (6.48)
Just some 17.1 15.1 13.3 12.2 15.2 16.7 9.7 15.4 13.4 16.1 9.8 9.2
(3.39) (3.45) (4.35) (3.35) (4.66) (5.44) (3.61) (3.70) (6.03) (7.26) (4.78) (5.45)
Not too much 24.4 31.2 36.3 27.6 34.0 28.7 42.4 29.9 56.6 30.6 36.8 47.7
(3.86) (4.47) (6.16) (4.58) (6.15) (6.59) (6.02) (4.69) (8.77) (9.10) (7.76) (9.42)
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Special Education Research, National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2), Wave 2 youth telephone interview/mail survey, 2003.

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