Economic precarity and changing levels of anxiety and stress among Canadians with disabilities and chronic health conditions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple event stressors converged to exacerbate a growing mental health crisis in Canada with differing effects across status groups. However, less is known about changing mental health situations throughout the pandemic, especially among individuals more likely to experience chronic stress because of their disability and health status. Using data from two waves of a targeted online survey of people with disabilities and chronic health conditions in Canada (N = 563 individuals, June 2020 and July 2021), we find that approximately 25% of respondents experienced additional increases in stress and anxiety levels in 2021. These increases were partly explained by worsening perceived financial insecurity and, in the case of stress, additional negative financial effects tied to the pandemic. This paper understands mental health disparities as a function of social status and social group membership. By linking stress process models and a minority stress framework with a social model of disability, we allude to how structural and contextual barriers make functional limitations disabling and in turn, life stressors.

Trading Blame: Drawing Boundaries around the Righteous, Deserving and Vulnerable in Times of Crisis

Symbolic boundaries shape how we see and understand both ourselves and those around us. Amid periods of crisis, these boundaries can appear more salient, sharpening distinctions between 'us' and 'them' and reinforcing inequalities in the social landscape. Based on 50 in-depth interviews about pandemic experiences among Canadians with disabilities and chronic health conditions, we examine how this community distinguishes between the 'deserving' and 'undeserving', and how emotions related to blame and resentment inform the boundaries they draw. We find that people with disabilities and chronic health conditions drew boundaries based on unequal health statuses and vulnerabilities and between those who are and are not legitimately entitled to government aid. Underlying these dimensions are a familiar set of moral tropes that respondents use to assert their own superiority and to inveigh their frustrations. Together, they play an important role in solidifying boundaries between groups, complicating public perceptions of policy responses to crisis.

Perceptions of Canadian Federal Policy Responses to COVID-19 among People with Disabilities and Chronic Health Conditions

This study examines how people with disabilities and chronic health conditions-members of a large and diverse group often overlooked by Canadian public policy-are making sense of the Canadian federal government's response to COVID-19. Using original national online survey data collected in June 2020 (N = 1,027), we investigate how members of this group view the government's overall response. Although survey results show broad support for the federal government's pandemic response, findings also indicate fractures based on disability type and specific health condition, political partisanship, region, and experiences with COVID-19. Among these, identification with the Liberal party and receipt of CERB stand out as associated with more positive views. Further examination of qualitative responses shows that these views are also linked to differing perspectives surrounding government benefits and spending, partisan divisions, and other social and cultural cleavages.

Barriers to Economic Security: Disability, Employment, and Asset Disparities in Canada

Although ample research shows that people with disabilities face significant labor market barriers, questions remain about whether and how disadvantages in employment and earnings contribute to economic insecurity. We use 1999 to 2012 Canadian Survey of Financial Security data to study disparities in nonhousing assets, which include household savings, stocks, and pensions, across households with and without disabilities. We find that households where the respondent or their spouse reported a disability held 25 percent less in nonhousing assets after accounting for key employment, education, and demographic factors. Demonstrating the more complicated relationship between disability, employment, and assets, these direct effects were further strengthened by disability's indirect effects on assets through its relationship with employment income.

Twenty-Five Years After the ADA: Situating Disability in America’s System of Stratification

<p>Americans with disabilities represent a significant proportion of the population. Despite their numbers and the economic hardships they face, disability is often excluded from general sociological studies of stratification and inequality. To address some of these omissions, this paper focuses on employment and earnings inequality by disability status in the United States since the enactment of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a policy that affects many Americans. After using Current Population Survey data from 1988-2014 to describe these continuing disparities, we review research that incorporates multiple theories to explain continuing gaps in employment and earnings by disability status. In addition to theories pointing to the so-called failures of the ADA, explanations also include general criticisms of the capitalist system and economic downturns, dependence on social welfare and disability benefits, the nature of work, and employer attitudes. We conclude with a call for additional research on disability and discrimination that helps to better situate disability within the American stratification system.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

The context of control: a cross-national investigation of the link between political institutions, efficacy, and collective action

Most research on efficacy and participation in collective action has focused on single country samples with little attention paid to the relationship between efficacy and country-level structural factors. Drawing on value expectancy theory, we theorize a link between macro-level political institutions and micro-level efficacy. To address the previous limitations in the efficacy and collective action literature, we use multi-level, cross-national data, and present results from a series of hierarchical models testing whether efficacy increases collective action cross-nationally, whether political institutions affect efficacy, and whether the effect of efficacy on collective action is conditional on political institutions. We find that efficacy increases collective action, that certain political institutions increase efficacy, and that the effect of efficacy on collective action is partly conditional on the inclusiveness of a country's political institutions. These findings suggest the insufficiency of purely structural as well as social psychological explanations of collective action.