Parenthood, Health, and Health Behaviors of Fathers with Disability

As recognized by Healthy People 2020 declared by the US Department of Health and Human Services men and women with disabilities experience significant disparities in their health and quality of life. Those who have and raise their child are a unique understudied subgroup of the disabled population. Attitudinal mistreatment and stigma together with their limited access to financial and social resources may collectively have deleterious consequences on their health relative to those without disabilities as well as disabled nonparents. However existing research on parents with disabilities is mostly based on the samples of mothers leaving a critical gap in our understanding of the health and well-being of fathers with disabilities. Furthermore the extent and types of fatherhood are not yet studied among fathers with disabilities which may critically affect the development and health of their children. We therefore propose to conduct a first-ever investigation of fatherhood health and health behaviors among US fathers with disabilities. For Aim 1 we will examine the extent and types of childbearing responsibilities among fathers with disabilities compared to those without disabilities (betweengroup analysis). For Aim 2 based on the innovative use of latent class analysis we will identify various father involvement typologies and correlates of each subtype among fathers with disabilities (within-disability-group analysis). For Aim 3 we will examine the levels of health status and the prevalence of unhealthy behaviors among fathers with disabilities compared to fathers without disabilities and nonfathers with disabilities. To address these three aims we will use data from 2011-13 2013-15 and 2015-17 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) which is the primary US survey for producing national estimates of fathering birth and family life. Since 2011 the NSFG has included the standard set of six questions from the American Community Survey to assess disability status which allows us to conduct the first-ever population-based examination of disparities in fatherhood health and health behaviors among US fathers with disabilities. The study population consists of fathers (age range = 18-44) with and without disabilities who have a residential or non-residential child age 18 or younger as well as disabled men who do not have any child as a comparison group for Aim 3. We will conduct descriptive bivariate and multivariate analyses to examine the extent and correlates of disability-related disparities in the health and fathering outcomes. This proposed study addresses MCHB Strategic Research Issue #2 (eliminating health disparities and barriers to health care for MCH populations) and #4 (promoting the healthy development of MCH populations) by identifying the roles played by fathers with disabilities. Our findings will build new knowledge that can inform the development and evaluation of targeted effective policy and programs to reduce disparities and improve outcomes for disabled fathers and their children.