Child Disability and Family Life

Introduction

Across the European Union, approximately 4% of individuals under age 16 have a disability, and over 15 million school-age children are known to have special educational needs. Disabilities limit children in their everyday activities and impact families in myriad ways.

Project Overview

FRAILIFE aims to comprehensively analyze the effects of a child's disability on family members – parents, siblings, and grandparents – in Europe, using high-quality data (registers, surveys, social media), innovative research designs, and methods.

Focus Areas

By focusing on the impact of child disability on family members’ life course trajectories, health outcomes, and social participation, FRAILIFE speaks to both general family processes and the special case of Europe’s frailest families.

Literature Gap

The existing literature on families with a disabled child is scattered, built on small convenience samples, and often focused on a specific disease; the findings are inconclusive and non-generalizable.

Methodological Advancements

FRAILIFE elevates the evidentiary standard by:

1. Using a population approach, which compares families with and without a disabled child and provides opportunities to uncover heterogeneous effects.
2. Going beyond simple associations between child disability and family outcomes to establish causal pathways, identify underlying mechanisms, and uncover causal effects.
3. Investigating both short- and long-term consequences of child disability on families.
4. Adopting a comparative perspective to uncover the moderating effects of institutions and culture.

Contribution to Family Demography

Beyond the specific insights about the networked consequences of disability, this project contributes to the field of family demography, as the analysis of extremely frail families has relevance for the general functioning of all families facing adverse events.

Conclusion

FRAILIFE will bring families with a disabled child out of their invisibility, offering new and important insights on their functioning, characteristics, and challenges, while informing effective family-centered policy.