New data on kids’ well-being

Ensuring our youth grow up in healthy supportive environments is an important part of building a strong future for any society.  Even here in the United States, there are significant disparities in child well-being.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of at-risk children. For 25 years, they have published a book that includes data about how children are faring in four areas: economic well-being, health, education,  and families and communities.

The book provides an evidence-based (and fascinating) snapshot of what it’s like to grow up in the United States in the present day. It also breaks down the data by state to help focus policies and programs at areas that need the most help.

This year’s KIDS COUNT Data Book offers some interesting insight into the lives of children. Here are some highlights:

• Twenty-two percent of all children in the U.S. live in poverty, according to the federal government’s poverty measurement. That’s up from 16 percent in 2000.
• If you measure child poverty by a different measure that includes resources from safety net programs, such as tax credits and food assistance, child poverty is hovering around 17 percent, down from 29 percent in 1993.
• More children live in areas of concentrated poverty. Thirteen percent of children live in neighborhoods where the poverty rate is 30 percent or more compared with 11 percent in 1990.
• More 3- and 4-year-old children are attending preschool than ever before.
• High school graduation rates have steadily increased for students of all races and income levels. Most of these improvements have occured before the institution of some major education policy changes over the past decade,  such as the No Child Left Behind initiative and the use of Common Core standards.
• Access to health care is improving. Fewer than 9 percent of children do not have health insurance, compared with 13 percent in 1990.
• Mortality rates for children and teens is falling, most likely due to increased use of safety measures such as seat belts, car seats and bike helmets.
• More children are living with single-parent families. In 2012, more than one-third of kids lived with a single parent, up from 25 percent in 1990.

The book includes all sorts of specific observations. For example, African-American children are much more likely to live in single-parent families and Hispanic children are significantly less likely to attend pre-school compared with other children. It also ranks each state across the four indicators.

“This is a great resource, which provides very rich data that is valuable for researchers, as well as policy makers across the United States,” said Jane Powers, a developmental psychologist at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research.  “We can use these data to target the development of new services, and to track change over time.”

These specific, evidence-based conclusions provide excellent background for creating new policies and programs in communities that need them most, and ultimately for helping all children get the resources they need to be successful, contributing members of society.