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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Nov 1.
Published in final edited form as: Am J Intellect Dev Disabil. 2015 Nov;120(6):514–526. doi: 10.1352/1944-7558-120.6.514

Table1. Marital History and Background for Parents of a Child with Developmental Disabilities (DD) and those of a child with no disabilities (Comparison).

Variables a DD
(n=190)
M (SD) or %
Comparison
(n=7,251)
M (SD) or %
t or x2 (df)
Marital History b
 Still married 67.89% 70.65% .68 (2)
 Death of spouse 10.00% 9.27%
 Divorce 22.11% 20.08%
Parental Characteristics
 Age (years) 64.77 (4.72) 64.70 (3.47) - .31 (7439)
 Gender (% female) 51.58% 53.72% .34 (1)
 Educational attainment
  High school grad or less 58.29% 58.25% .57 (2)
  Some college 14.44% 16.21%
  BA or higher 27.27% 25.54%
 Family religion (% Catholic) 38.42% 41.89% .91 (1)
Marital Characteristics
 Age at marriage (years) 22.38 (3.65) 21.97 (3.11) - 1.78 (7431)
 Time lag to the first child birth   (months) 23.12 (26.24) 21.39 (19.79) -1.18 (7439)
 Number of children born during marriage 3.47 (1.44) 3.08 (1.24) - 4.35 (7439)***
 Death of any child 14.74% 6.52% 19.94 (1)***
 Target child's birth order (% first born) 36.45% 44.27% 4.90 (1)*

[Note]

a

Variables with missing data: educational attainment (n=4); family religion (n=17); age at marriage (n=8); death of any child (n=8).

b

Marital history categories refer to status of marriage involving the child with developmental disabilities or the target child for the comparison group.

p ≤ .10,

*

p ≤ .05,

**

p ≤ .01,

***

p ≤ .001