Bisesti E, Landes SD. Racial-ethnic differences in educational trajectories for individuals with intellectual disability.
J Intellect Disabil Res 2021;
65:548-560. [PMID:
33738868 PMCID:
PMC8105284 DOI:
10.1111/jir.12830]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2020] [Revised: 02/17/2021] [Accepted: 02/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Racial-ethnic differences in educational attainment have not been explored among adults with intellectual disability (ID). Because adults with ID and racial-ethnic minority groups have been historically marginalised from educational pathways through life, they have likely experienced cumulative disadvantage. Therefore, investigating the intersection of ID and race-ethnicity is necessary to increase understanding of educational attainment among adults with ID.
METHODS
Using 1986-2017 National Health Interview Survey data, we examined the educational trajectories of adults with ID, stratified by race-ethnicity (N = 4610). Generalised ordered logistic regression models were utilised to estimate the effect of birth cohort on educational attainment by race-ethnicity among adults with ID.
RESULTS
Results support prior findings that educational attainment increased for adults with ID around the 1950-1959 birth cohort; however, this was only the case for non-Hispanic Whites. For racial-ethnic minority groups, the probability of attaining a high school degree did not increase until comparatively later birth cohorts: non-Hispanic Black adults did not have their largest gains in educational attainment until the 1960-1969 birth cohort; Hispanic adults did not have their largest gains in attainment until the 1980-1999 birth cohort.
CONCLUSION
This study provides evidence of improvements in educational attainment for all adults with ID across birth cohorts. However, racial-ethnic disparities were also present - educational attainment levels for non-Hispanic Blacks remained lower than for non-Hispanic Whites across all birth cohorts in the study. Hispanics were able to catch up to and surpass both non-Hispanic Whites and non-Hispanic Blacks by the end of the study period, despite lower levels of education in the early birth cohorts. Results from this study highlight the need to attend to race-ethnicity when examining educational outcomes among adults with ID.
Collapse