Examining Daily Living Skills and Economic Hardship for Youth With Disabilities Using the NLTS2012

Daily living skills (DLS) are crucial to the postschool success of all students with disabilities. However, there are discrepancies in the opportunities and supports for the development of DLS for students with intellectual disability and autism. In this pre-registered study, we used data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 to create a latent construct of DLS and examine its relationship with economic hardship. Results indicated students with intellectual disability and autism had the lowest level of DLS compared with students with high-incidence disabilities. Non-White students faced higher levels of economic hardship compared with White students. Results from this study have implications for large-scale survey design and indicate a need for additional research on students of color with intellectual disability or autism.