Abstract
Objectives: We compared adult educational, vocational, and social outcomes among young adults with and without childhood-onset chronic illness in a nationally representative U.S. sample. Methods: We used data from Wave IV (2008) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. We compared respondents who reported childhood-onset cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or epilepsy with young adults without these chronic illnesses in terms of marriage, having children, living with parents, romantic relationship quality, educational attainment, income, and employment. Multivariate models controlled for sociodemographic factors and adult-onset chronic illness. Results: As compared with those without childhood chronic illness, respondents with childhood chronic illness had similar odds of marriage (odds ratios [OR] =.89, 95% CI:.65-1.24), having children (OR =.99, 95% CI:.70-1.42), and living with parents (OR = 1.49, 95% CI.94-2.33), and similar reports of romantic relationship quality. However, the chronic illness group had lower odds of graduating college (OR =.49, 95% CI:.31.78) and being employed (OR =.56, 95% CI:.39.80), and higher odds of receiving public assistance (OR = 2.13, 95% CI: 1.39-3.25), and lower mean income. Conclusions: Young adults growing up with chronic illness succeed socially, but are at increased risk of poorer educational and vocational outcomes.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 206-212 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Adolescent Health |
Volume | 49 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2011 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Training support for Gary Maslow, M.D. provided by T32HP14001 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for University of North Carolina's National Research Service Administration Primary Care Research Fellowship. Effort by A. Haydon and C.T. Halpern was supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant R01-HD57046 ; C.T. Halpern, Principal Investigator. Thanks to the National Research Service Administration Primary Care Research Fellows for careful review of this manuscript.
Keywords
- Chronic illness
- Educational outcomes
- Social outcomes
- Transition to adulthood
- Vocational outcomes
- Young adult
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Comparative Study
- Journal Article
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural