Child well-being rises slightly

In a blow to the commonly held belief that money and technology improve lives, Duke researchers have found that the level of well-being for American children has increased only slightly since 1975.

   According to the recently released Child Well-Being Index, children are safer and more educated than they were in 1975, but they are also less healthy and more prone to suicide. Childhood obesity, which is already an alarming trend for parents and physicians nationwide, was one of the researchers' top concerns.

   "If you want to pinpoint [the most problematic] of the indicators, it would be obesity," said Sarah Meadows, data manager of the project and a graduate student in sociology. "Obesity has risen to a point where it negates the other positives. For instance, the rate of infant mortality and teenage pregnancy has decreased, but obesity is holding back the progress that could have been made."

   The project also revealed a decline in criminal activity and victimization, from about 20 percent above the 1975 baseline levels in 1994 to about 38 percent below those levels in 2002.

   Over the last three years, researchers organized previously collected data from 28 national indicators, including everything from secure parental employment rate to mathematical test scores, to objectively determine the health and well-being of children.

   The ages of the children studied ranged from zero to 29. The one 29-year-old was a special case, included because of the indicator for rate of graduation from college.

   These indicators were arranged into seven "quality of life" domains--material well-being, health, safety, productive activity, social relationships, emotional well-being and place in community. The composite is an equally-weighted average of the seven domains. This value is then used to show a year's overall trend compared to other years.

    According to the study of the 27-year period, child well-being has increased 11 percent from the late 1980s. Because of the long-range scope of the project, the researchers could hypothesize reasons for future declines in well-being.

   Land said two things happened in the 1980s--the economy underwent a massive restructuring and the baby boomers replaced the GI generation. He also pointed out that a struggling economy often correlated with lower child well-being levels. According to some experts, this could indicate a future problem for children.

   "Due to recent economic conditions, it is possible that we could see some declines," said Ruby Takanishi, president of the Foundation for Child Development. "Now [improving child well-being] must be fixed a little bit against the tides due to the current economics and uncertain national condition."

   Takanishi also expressed disappointment over the results of the study. "If you look at 5 percent over a quarter of a century and look at increases in economic well-being and our leadership in the world, I think the answer is we should be doing a whole lot better for children than we are."

   She added that through statistical analysis, children in the U.S. could be 15 to 20 percent better off than they are currently.

Land admitted that the index was not flawless and had the potential to be improved.

   "Part of this study was to identify data gaps," he said. "We will then work with the researchers to design new indicators for the next generation. This [system] is not ideal but is still interesting."

Even thought the system might have some flaws, Takanishi expressed hope for the future.

   "I think that the whole idea of the index is to really call the nation's attention--policy makers and parents--to how well our children are doing over a period of time," she said. "It should serve as a reminder that we need to pay attention to their well-being and shows that we have far to go."