Abstract
This paper uses recent data on U.S. children from the National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF) to create indices that tally the number of problems or risks that individual children experience. We compare results with those from indices developed elsewhere that assess the change across sets of population-level indicators. While the two types of indices show similar trends over time, specific changes, as well as trends, depend on the specific domain of well-being or context examined, highlighting the importance of the distinction between well-being and context. Children with problems in multiple domains tend to be socio-economically and demographically disadvantaged compared with other children. We preface this work by providing an overview of the history of child well-being indicators and distinguish indices of child well-being from indices of the condition of children.
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For more information about the NSAF, see: http://www.urban.org/Content/Research/NewFederalism/NSAF/Overview/NSAFOverview.htm.
In other work, we are examining indices created based on positive indicators in order to examine trends in positive outcomes, rather than trends in children’s problems.
Available online at http://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/index.asp.
Available online at http://www.soc.duke.edu/resources/child_wellbeing/section_h.html.
In order to compare the FCD-Land, KIDS COUNT, and America’s Children indices with the NSAF, we re-calibrated so that the base year for all indices to 1997, which is the first year that NSAF data are available.
The sample size for children with half or more of the problems in all five domains is too small to yield reliable estimates, so we combined domains four and five.
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Moore, K.A., Vandivere, S., Lippman, L. et al. An Index of the Condition of Children: The Ideal and a Less-than-Ideal U.S. Example. Soc Indic Res 84, 291–331 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-007-9120-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-007-9120-8