Disability & Divorce: Separating Fact from Fiction

It’s not uncommon to hear a statistic quoted at disability ministry conferences that 80% of marriages involving a child with autism result in divorce. That statistic is unequivocally NOT TRUE. The best study looking at divorce rates in families with a child with Down Syndrome reported lower divorce rates than in families of children with and without children with disabilities identified at birth. Another study of divorce and intellectual disabilities reported divorce rates no higher than those seen in the general population. With autism, the largest study examining divorce rates showed that after controlling for co-occurring psychiatric disorders, a child with an autism spectrum disorder is slightly more likely than those without ASD to live in a traditional household. While experience suggests that families of kids with ASDs need purposeful and intentional outreach and support from a local church, this may be even more true in families of kids with psychiatric conditions. The bottom line is that families of kids with all types of disability are in desperate need of local churches where they can experience the love of Jesus through the care and support of friends and neighbors.