Do Koreans with Disabilities Trust Disability Policies?: An Analysis of Latent Types of Change In Policy Trust and Their Characteristics

Background and Purpose: This study examines the longitudinal trajectories of policy trust among individuals with disabilities and identifies its key determinants. Beyond resource distribution, policy trust is an important factor in empowering individuals with disabilities as active agents and reinforcing their citizenship. However, existing research on people with disabilities is limited and fails to adequately capture the heterogeneity and life-course dynamics of this population. To address these gaps, this study employs Growth Mixture Modeling (GMM). The findings aim to support bottom-up policy design and strengthen the substantive citizenship rights of persons with disabilities.

Methods: To achieve the objectives of this study, data were drawn from the 2nd (2017) through the 8th (2023) waves of the Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled (PSED), conducted by the Employment Development Institute of the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities. The final sample included 3,913 individuals with disabilities who were aged between 15 and 65 at the time of the baseline survey. This study analyzed policy trust across five domains (welfare, employment, education, culture/sports, and general services). Influencing factors were categorized into five dimensions: sociodemographic, health, economic, psychological, and social capital. Using Mplus 9.0, a Growth Mixture Model (GMM) was employed to identify latent trust trajectories, followed by a three-step approach to examine the unique characteristics of each identified group.

Results: The analysis identified five trajectories of policy trust among persons with disabilities: Low-Level Increasing (5.0%), Middle-Level Decreasing (7.4%), High-Level Maintaining (30.6%), Middle-Level Maintaining (49.1%), and Low-Level Maintaining (7.9%). Using a three-step multinomial logistic regression with Low-Level Maintaining as the reference, patterns emerged: For the 'Low-Level Increasing' group, being male, unmarried, and economically inactive increased the likelihood of membership relative to the 'Low-Level Maintaining' group. The 'Middle-Level Decreasing' group was primarily characterized by lower disability acceptance and less need for daily assistance. For the 'High-Level Maintaining' group, key predictors included being male, non-recipients of social benefits, having chronic diseases, and a high dependency on daily help, alongside lower levels of disability acceptance, happiness, social participation, and employment support. Similarly, the 'Middle-Level Maintaining' group was associated with being male, higher education, and a high need for daily assistance, as well as being a non-recipient, having lower disability acceptance, chronic diseases, and a lack of employment support.

Conclusions and Implications: This study empirically demonstrates that policy trust among persons with disabilities is differentiated into five heterogeneous groups and undergoes dynamic changes over time. In particular, the group with a higher probability of belonging to the ‘Low-Level Maintaining’ type was characterized by being male, not receiving public assistance, having lower levels of disability acceptance, and exhibiting a higher need for assistance from others. These findings underscore the necessity of reflecting the internal heterogeneity within the disabled community to enhance policy efficacy. This suggests a critical need to move beyond uniform, top-down frameworks and instead establish person-centered participation systems that empower individuals as active stakeholders in the policy process.