Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 115

CHAPTER 3 making it harder for parents to work and earn a living. One-third of children with disabilities live in single-parent homes, although it doesn’t always start out that way.67 Married parents are more likely to separate or divorce within three years after the birth of a child with a disability than are the parents of a child not born with a disability.68 Poverty itself increases the risk that children will develop a disability. Low birth weight, which closely tracks poverty rates, is associated with long-term disFigure 3.9 Low-Income Families That Include a Child with a abilities.69 Stress, especially the Disability are More Likely to Experience Material so-called “toxic stress” caused by Hardships sustained economic hardship and Percent of low-income (below 200% of poverty) families with children family adversity, can cause biologexperiencing material hardships, by children’s disability ical changes in children that make them more susceptible to chronic 71% illness.70 Toxic stress is also associated  with cognitive difficulties. A 2012 study by the American 54% Psychological Association found, 51% “The children with a history of poverty and neglect are more likely to 35% be diagnosed with developmental delay (60 percent compared to 10 to 20 percent), Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (80 percent compared to 3 to  7 percent), and Learning Disability (28 percent Food-related hardship(s) Housing-related hardship(s) compared to 5 percent). Additionally, 100 percent of our sample had emotional/behavioral disorders, One or more children has a disability No child has a disability compared to 46 percent of the general population.”71 Source: Susan Parish et al (March 2009), “Material Hardships in US Families Raising Children There have been media reports with Disabilities: Research Summary and Policy Implications,” UNC School of Social Work, University of North Carolina. alleging that parents are asking doctors to prescribe psychotropic drugs to their children for emotional/behavioral disorders simply so that they can qualify for SSI. (Children with disabilities in low-income families may be eligible for SSI if the disability imposes additional costs on their families.) The allegations were taken seriously in some quarters, prompting a 2011 request from members of Congress to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate “trends in the rate of children receiving SSI benefits due to mental impairments such as ADHD, depression and others to identify the causes of the trends.”72 In June 2012, GAO reported that in fact, children taking psychotropic drugs were more likely to be denied SSI benefits than approved.73 The evidence shows that the children who are approved do in fact qualify based on their medical conditions; children are approved for SSI only with solid evidence supplied by qualified medical professionals. www.bread.org/institute? ? 2014 Hunger Report? 105 n