Trajectories of disability throughout early life and labor force status as a young adult: Results from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

Abstract

Objectives Young people with disabilities have poorer labor force outcomes than their peers without disabilities. These understandings, however, are largely based on research assessing disability at one time point only, an approach that potentially obscures variation in disability over time. We aimed to identify trajectories of disability during childhood/adolescence and assess associations between trajectory membership and labor force status in young adulthood. Methods We conducted group-based trajectory modeling of disability status information from six waves [waves 2–7 (age 4/5 to 16/17 years)] of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. The trajectories were used to predict labor f..