How Physical Disabilities Influence Social Security Receipt among Vulnerable People in their Late Twenties

Abstract

The objective of this article is to investigate how physical disabilities – adjusted for psychosocial difficulties and selected school variables – influence social security receipt among 373 former students with special needs. These individuals have been followed from their late teens and into their late twenties. Theoretically, the study draws on life course perspectives, with emphases on transitions, linked lives, geographical and historical location, human agency and cumulative processes. The logistic regression analyses show how each of eight independent variables – while simultaneously controlling for the other covariates – influences the former students’ risk of becoming social security recipients before the age of 30 years. This risk is especially high among youths with physical disabilities if they also have psychosocial problems or modest educational attainment. These cumulative processes constitute evidence of accentuation in that early disadvantages contribute to later adversities. In addition, measures meant to improve the situation for students with special needs, such as the use of individual teaching plans and teaching assistants in class, do not contribute to reducing their risk of becoming social security recipients.