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Population Studied: Data on the children of the NLSY 1979 female respondents will be used. Eleven waves of data have been collected on over 11,000 children. The study population will include over 9,000 children with outcome data in at least one time period between 1988-2006.

Principal Findings: Twelve percent of the children in the sample had an activity limitation reported at some point during the study period. In cross-sectional models controlling for child, mother, and other household characteristics, a $10,000 increase in family income was associated with a -.36% decrease in the probability of parents reporting a activity limitation. After controlling for child fixed effect, the association decreases and becomes statistically insignificant. Using expansion in the EITC to create an instrumental variable for reported income reveals a positive causal effect of income on the probability of reporting any activity limitation. Specifically, a $10,000 increase in family income implies a .8 percent increase in the likelihood of reporting a activity limitation.

Conclusions: Family income is a causal determinant of the way in which parents perceive the limiting effect of their children's chronic conditions.

Implications for Policy, Delivery or Practice: There may be a disparity in the availability and affordability of services to support children with chronic health conditions in families with high income versus low income. There needs to be further description of this causal relationship to understand the source of this disparity.