U.S. Government’s Annual Report on the Well-Being of Children and Youth Shows Gains, But Also Setbacks
This year’s U.S. Government’s report America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well Being, reveals that some areas of children’s well-being have improved, yet others have gotten worse. For instance, compared to national statistics for the previous year, there has been an increase in the percentage of children living with at least one working parent. Nevertheless, the percentage of children living in physically inadequate or crowded housing or housing that costs more than 30 percent of household income has increased.
The report, developed by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), is in its 10th anniversary and presents a comprehensive look at critical areas of child well-being including: family and social environment, economic circumstances, behavior, education, and health. This year’s report has been revised and two new sections have been added: 1) Physical Environment and Safety and 2) Health Care. In addition, nine new indicators were also added including: child maltreatment, oral health, drinking water quality, lead in the blood of children, child injury and mortality, adolescent injury and mortality, sexual activity, college enrollment, and asthma.
Among other positive indicators of children’s well-being illustrated in the report are that high school students were more likely to have taken advanced academic courses and the percentage of young adults who completed high school has increased. Also, that the adolescent birth rate has dropped to a record low and the percentage of children living in households classified as food insecure has declined.
The report notes, for instance, that secure parental employment reduces the occurrence of poverty and its attendant risks on children. And, because most parents obtain health care for themselves and their children through their employers, a secure job for a parent can be important for determining if a child has health care. According to the report, secure parental employment may also enhance children’s psychological well-being and improve family functioning by reducing stress and other negative effects that unemployment or underemployment can have on parents. The report states that about 74 percent of Hispanic children and 62 percent of black, non-Hispanic children lived in families with secure parental employment in 2005, compared with 84 percent of white, non-Hispanic children.
Some of the negative indicators in the report include that the percentage of children served by community water systems that did not meet all applicable standards for healthy drinking water has increased and the percentage of low birthweight infants also increased, as did the percentage of births to unmarried women. Moreover, the rate at which youth were perpetrators of serious violent crime increased slightly. The report explains that contaminants in drinking water may be quite varied and may cause a range of diseases in children, including acute diseases such as gastrointestinal illness, developmental effects such as learning disorders, and cancer.
In addition, the report reveals that the rates for two of the most frequent health conditions among children, overweight and asthma, have not changed significantly over the past few years, but remain at a high level, and that there are significant disparities. During 2003-2004, 18 percent of children ages 6-17 were overweight. The rate was highest among black non-Hispanic girls with one-quarter being overweight, compared to 16 percent among young white non-Hispanic girls and 17 percent of Mexican American girls. Also, almost one in ten children had asthma. In 2005, 13 percent of black, non-Hispanic children under age 18 were reported to currently have asthma, compared with 8 percent of white, non-Hispanic and 9 percent of Hispanic children under age 18.
Among indicators that did not change from the previous year were the percentage of children in poverty, the percentage of children who received some form of nonparental child care on a regular basis, the percentage of children with at least one foreign born parent, the percentage of students who smoked cigarettes regularly, and the percentage of students who had five or more alcoholic beverages in a row.
The report noted that in 2006, there were 73.7 million children in the U.S., representing 25 percent of the population. This was down from a peak of 36 percent at the end of the baby boom in 1964. In 2006, 58 percent of U.S. children were white, non-Hispanic; 20 percent were Hispanic; 15 percent were black; 4 percent were Asian; and 4 percent were all other races. The percentage of children who are Hispanic has increased faster than that of any other racial or ethnic group, growing from 9 percent of the child population in 1980 to 20 percent in 2006.
For additional information on the report, please visit: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/.
Source: "Report Shows Gains, Setbacks for Nation's Children," National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) website, July 2007.