Children In America Research Articles

Increasing the Complexity of Young Adolescents’ Beliefs About Poverty and Inequality: Results of an 8th Grade Social Studies Curriculum Intervention

Poverty and economic hardship remain a reality for many of America's children. Although the causes of poverty are varied, Americans strongly endorse individual responsibility as a primary cause. Because beliefs about poverty originate in childhood and adolescence, intervention efforts targeting young people may be particularly effective in shifting attitudes about the poor and policies designed to help the disadvantaged. To test this proposition, the current study evaluated the efficacy of a 1-week 8th grade social studies curriculum focusing on poverty and inequality. Study participants were upper middle-class youth enrolled in multiple sections of a Social Studies course taught by a single teacher. Participants had little direct contact with marginalized groups such as poor and homeless individuals in their communities. Students (N=66) completed a survey assessing their attitudes and beliefs about poverty and poor people prior to, and 1 week and 6 months post-instruction. Results indicated that the curriculum was partially effective in increasing the complexity of students' beliefs about poverty. Students were more likely to emphasize fatalistic causes and less likely to list individualistic causes for poverty following instruction than before, but rarely emphasized structural causes for poverty and rated individual effort as the most influential factor in determining one's success. Implications of the study findings for curriculum efforts targeting young adolescents' reasoning about economic inequality and inequity and directions for future studies are discussed.

The housing and neighborhood conditions of America's children: patterns and trends over four decades

This paper uses national and metropolitan area data from American Housing Surveys over four decades to examine the patterns and trends in the housing and neighborhood circumstances of children. Children across the income distribution have experienced dramatic improvements in the physical adequacy of their dwellings and in crowding but significant deterioration in housing affordability. Poor children are often in greatest jeopardy, with the rate of complaints about crime 25 percent higher in 2005 than in 1975, and the rate of school complaints twice as high in 2005 than 1975. Poor children also experience little payoff from residential mobility in terms of physical dwelling adequacy, crowding, affordability, or adequacy of schools, though moves are associated with fewer complaints about crime. However, it is the near poor – those between 101–200 percent of poverty – and not the poor who appear to be most affected by the tightness or looseness of the housing market.

"Where have all the children gone? The effects of the justice system on America's children and youth": Erratum.

"Where have all the children gone? The effects of the justice system on America's children and youth": Erratum.

Using Nature and Outdoor Activity to Improve Children's Health

Childhood obesity affects 17% or 12.5 million of America's children, contributing to the rise in children's health disparities. Type 2 diabetes, asthma, vitamin D deficiency, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder have also increased over the past few decades. A shift toward a sedentary lifestyle is a major contributor to the decline in children's health. Children spend more time indoors using electronic media and less time engaged in outdoor unstructured play. This article reviews the current evidence of the mental and physical health benefits associated with unstructured, outdoor activities and time spent in a natural environment such as a park or other recreational area. Pediatric health care providers should recommend outdoor activities for children and refer families to safe and easily accessible outdoor areas. Pediatric health care providers can incorporate this simple, lifestyle-based intervention into anticipatory guidance.

Which Pediatricians Are Providing Care to America's Children? An Update on the Trends and Changes During the Past 26 Years

To determine the current proportion of pediatric primary care and specialty visits being conducted by pediatricians versus other providers. We used data from 1980-2006 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys (NAMCS) to examine trends in office visits by patients 0 to 17 years of age. During our years of interest, the total number of visits in NAMCS by children ranged from 2597 to 9220 per year. Overall, the percentage of all nonsurgical physician office visits for children 0 to 17 years of age made to general pediatricians increased from 61% in 1996 to 71% in 2006 and those to nonpediatric generalists fell from 28% to 22%. The greatest changes between 2000 and 2006 occurred in the adolescent age group where the proportion of visits to general pediatricians increased from 38% to 53%. Pediatricians continue to provide most primary care visits for children in the United States. For the first time, pediatricians now provide most visits for adolescents.

Aerobic Fitness Status and Out-of-School Lifestyle of Rural Children in America and Russia

This study compares the aerobic fitness status of a sample of rural American and Russian children, and examines these findings in light of their out of school physical activity participation. Ten and eleven year old (N = 415) children from both countries completed a 15 m Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) fitness test, and following the test, the children scoring beyond the upper limit of the healthy fitness zone were interviewed with regard to their out-of-school participation in physical activity. The Russian students achieved significantly higher scores than American students (P < .001), and males scored higher than females for both countries (P < .001). After examining the profiles of the students 3 apparent themes begin to emerge: Russian students walk to and from school; the students in both settings who achieve a superior fitness level participate in after school physical activity; after school activities for the American students appear to be more recreational orientated than the Russian students, who participate in structured training in sports clubs. For the students in this study, it appears that participating in after school activity may have contributed to achieving high levels of aerobic fitness.

Growing Diversity among America's Children and Youth: Spatial and Temporal Dimensions

This study documents the changing racial and ethnic mix of America's children. Specifically, we focus on the unusually rapid shifts in the composition and changing spatial distribution of America's young people between 2000 and 2008. Minorities grew to 43 percent of all children and youth, up from 38.5 percent only eight years earlier. In 1990, this figure stood at 33 percent. Among 0–4‐year‐olds, 47 percent of all children were minority in 2008. Changes in racial and ethnic composition are driven by two powerful demographic forces. The first is the rapid increase since 2000 in the number of minority children—with Hispanics accounting for 80 percent of the growth. The second is the absolute decline in the number of non‐Hispanic white children and youth. The growth of minority children and racial diversity is distributed unevenly over geographical space. Over 500 (or roughly 1 in 6) counties now have majority‐minority youth populations. Broad geographic areas of America nevertheless remain mono‐racial, where only small shares of minorities live.

The tragedy of child care in America

Why the United States has failed to establish a comprehensive high-quality child care programme is the question at the centre of this book. Edward Zigler has been intimately involved in this issue since the 1970s, and here he presents a firsthand history of the policy making and politics surrounding this important debate. Good-quality child care supports cognitive, social, and emotional development, school readiness, and academic achievement. This book examines the history of child care policy since 1969, including the inside story of America's one great attempt to create a comprehensive system of child care, its failure, and the lack of subsequent progress. Identifying specific issues that persist today, Zigler and his coauthors conclude with an agenda designed to lead us successfully toward quality care for America's children.

Justice, Educational Equality, and Sufficiency

Among the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of condition among the people. (de Tocqueville 1990, 7)There are significant inequalities in the lives of America's children, including inequalities in the education that these children receive. These educational inequalities include not only disparities in funding per pupil but also in class size, teacher qualification, and resources such as books, labs, libraries, computers, and curriculum, as well as the physical condition of the school and the safety of students within it. While not all schools attended by poor children are bad schools, and not all schools attended by well-off children are good schools, there are clear patterns. Poor children are more likely to attend crowded and poorly equipped schools with less qualified teachers than the children of more affluent families. They are less likely to have computers, books, and advanced placement academic courses. (Satz 2007, 623)

Home Visitation and Young Children: An Approach Worth Investing In? and commentaries

Home Visitation and Young Children: An Approach Worth Investing In? and commentaries

Update on Disparities in Oral Health and Access to Dental Care for America's Children

This contribution updates federal survey findings on children's oral health and dental care since release of Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General in 2000. Dental caries experience continued at high levels, impacting 40% of all children aged 2 to 11 years, with greater disease and untreated disease burden borne by poor and low-income children and racial/ethnic minorities. Caries rates increased for young children (to 28% of 2- to 5-year-olds in the period 1999-2004) and remained flat for most other ages. The total volume of caries and untreated caries increased as the numbers of children increased. The proportion of US children with a dental visit increased modestly (from 42% to 45% between 1996 and 2004), with the greatest increases occurring among children newly covered by the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Disparities in dental visits continued to be evidenced by age, family income, race/ethnicity, and caregiver education. Parental reports of children's oral health and dental care parallel these findings and also reveal higher unmet dental needs among children with special health care needs. Racial- and income-based disparities in both oral health and dental care continue into adolescence and young adulthood. These disparities can, as in the past, be expected to exacerbate under the forces of growing income disparities and demographic trends.

Educating Pediatricians and Family Physicians in Children's Oral Health

Publication of Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General (SGROH) alerted the public and health professionals to the importance of oral health and the vulnerability of poor and underserved children to dental disease. In response, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) have initiated training programs for residents and practicing physicians, allowing them to conduct oral health screenings, apply preventive strategies, and facilitate appropriate referrals to dentists. Training programs are increasingly available on the Web, but their quality and effectiveness are rarely assessed. To ensure greater inclusion of oral health in graduate medical education, voluntary curricular guidelines have been developed, and education in oral health is mandated in family medicine residency programs. Several initiatives engaging practicing physicians in oral health activities have demonstrated improved access and reduced dental disease in children, but evaluation of all programs is essential to determine cost effectiveness and outcomes. The actions of AAP, AAFP, STFM, and other large-scale initiatives have helped break down the traditional separation between medicine and dentistry. Collaboration between physicians and dentists should be encouraged at all levels of education to ensure improvement of the oral health of America's children.

Child Poverty and Inequality: Securing a Better Future for America's Children

Child Poverty and Inequality: Securing a Better Future for America's Children

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being

Although Corporate Sustainability Performance Measurement (CSPM) has been a subject of growing interest both in academia and in practice, knowledge on which Corporate Sustainability (CS) aspects should be considered to account for CSPM is still limited. The purpose of this article is to compare the most widely used CSPM instruments to highlight their similarities and differences as well as to advance toward a more standardized list of sub-dimensions that should be covered when accounting for the economic, social and environmental dimensions of CS. We first conducted a systematic literature review to identify the most relevant CSPM instruments. This process yielded 9 instruments developed by different stakeholders (e.g., KLD, DJSI, GRI, Bansal, 2005). Second, we analyzed their content based on a systematic process. We found that the instruments differ quantitatively and qualitatively on how they measure CS, although there seems to be more consensus regarding the CS environmental dimension. Finally, we created a list of sub-dimensions that could be used as a reference for academics, practitioners and other stakeholders interested in measuring CS at the corporate level.

Putting Children Front and Center: Building Coordinated Social Policy for America's Children

In this article, we argue that policymakers in America should reference a coherent, comprehensive, and child-centered framework for children. That is, based on an extensive review of the empirical literature on the first two decades of life, we conclude that policies should address the needs of young people throughout the first two decades of life. In addition, public policies should address the multiple contexts within which young people develop, and the multiple domains that represent positive development, such as cognitive, psychological, physical, social, emotional, and civic domains. By referencing such a framework, we posit that public policies would be more effective and efficient. We conclude with multiple recommendations that would be first steps to putting this framework into practice.

Child Poverty and Inequality. Securing a Better Future for America's Children ‐ By Duncan Lindsey

Child Poverty and Inequality. Securing a Better Future for America's Children ‐ By Duncan Lindsey

Caring for America's Children

Caring for America's Children

Caring for America's Children: Military Youth in Time of War

1. Keith M. Lemmon, MAJ, MD* 2. Molinda M. Chartrand, LTC, MD† 1. *Director, Military Child & Adolescent Center of Excellence, Adolescent Medicine & Pediatric Faculty at Madigan Army Medical Center; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Md 2. †Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrician, Spangdahlem Air Base; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Uniformed Services Health Services University, Bethesda, Md After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. Describe the differences between Active Duty and Reserve Component military forces and how these differences may affect the emotional and behavioral well-being of military children and adolescents. 2. Discuss the differences between the service and sacrifice offered by a military service member on behalf of his or her country and the service and sacrifice a military child or adolescent offers in support of the military family member. 3. Explain why civilian pediatricians and other youth-serving professionals may come into contact with military children and adolescents and how they could support the emotional and behavioral health needs of this population more proactively. 4. Recognize some of the emotional and behavioral changes that may occur to military service members as a result of their service in the military and how these changes may affect their children. 5. Characterize the spectrum of stress in military youth. 6. Name three support resources designed specifically to support the emotional and behavioral health needs of military children and adolescents. 7. List three steps pediatricians can take within their practices to provide culturally competent care to military children and adolescents. “If you want to honor a service member, the best way to accomplish this is to honor and support their legacy, their children.” COL Elisabeth Stafford, MD, FAAP, FSAM, Career-long Military Child Advocate, Pediatrician, and Adolescent Medicine Specialist The events of September 11, 2001, clearly altered the lives of most citizens of the United States. However, few have been affected more significantly than military service members and their families. As the United States and its allies near the beginning of the eighth year of the global war on terrorism, the effects of prolonged wartime deployments on military families and children are beginning to be recognized and characterized more fully. Many military children and adolescents …

The Immunization Status of Home-schooled Children in America

The immunization of children against a vast number of life-threatening infectious agents has been hailed as one of the greatest public health interventions of the twentieth century. In America, the morbidity and mortality associated with many common childhood infectious diseases has all but vanished. State-based school entry vaccination laws play a significant role in achieving high immunization rates among children and adolescents. Alarmingly, there is no consistent regulation in place to monitor the immunization status of the ever-growing home-schooled population. It is widely unknown whether the nearly 2 million home-schooled children are adequately immunized. As the home schooling movement continues to gain ground in the United States, pediatric nurse practitioners in the primary care setting will play an important role in protecting the health of these children, as well as the public's health.

Child poverty and inequality: securing a better future for America's children

1. The Color of Child Poverty 2. Wealth and Poverty among America's Children 3. From the Era of the Middle Class to the Era of the Wealthy Class 4. One Down, One to Go: Government Efforts to End Poverty among Seniors and Children 5. The Failure of Welfare Reform for Poor Children 6. An End to Welfare and Maybe Even Child Poverty 7. Embracing Wealth: An Asset Building Approach to Ensuring Opportunity for All Children