title: Underemployment among mothers of children with intellectual disabilities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mothers with lifelong care responsibilities might involuntarily be non-employed or work part-time, both of which are defined as "underemployment." This study aimed to investigate who these underemployed mothers are and what are the factors associated with such employment hardship when having a child with intellectual disability (ID).
  
  
  METHODS
  An interview survey was conducted in 2011 in two local authorities of Taiwan on 876 working-age mothers with a child with intellectual disability; 514 of them were working part-time/non-employed and chosen as participants of this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mothers with a younger child with intellectual disability, a higher level of education, a lower level of family income and more family members with disabilities were more likely to be underemployed compared with the mothers who were voluntarily working part-time/non-employed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The underemployed mothers were more likely to have financial difficulty and heavy caregiving loads; their employment hardship should be of concern for policymakers.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Welfare Policy, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yueh-Ching
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1807-3617
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Teppo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kröger
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Cheng-Yun
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Pu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D032721:Adult Children; D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000451:nursing*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Taiwan; employment hardship; intellectual disability; mother; underemployment; work-care reconciliation