A Changed Environment For Children: A Status Report
THE STATUS OF CHILDREN & YOUTH
Changing family life patterns have greatly affected today's children. Having a parent at home full time, a given 30 years ago, is now the exception to the rule. Studies show that many young people spend 40 percent of their time without responsible adult
companionship or supervision.1 It is ironic that while technology can give America's youth membership in a global community, many are alienated from the communities outside their doors.
The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development now reports, "The experience of growing up in American communities has changed significantly in recent decades. For most young adolescents, the feeling of belonging to a community that offers mutual aid and a sense of common purpose, whether it is found in their families, schools, neighborhoods, houses of worship, or youth organizations, has been greatly compromised."2
Among today's 10th grade students, for example, less than one-third attend religious activities once a week; while only a fifth participate in youth groups or organized recreational programs or take weekly classes outside of school in art, music, language or dance. One in 8 takes weekly sports lessons outside of school, while 1 in 14 volunteers or performs community service.3
Child poverty rates are the most widely used indicators of child well-being. In 1993, almost 14 million children in the United States were poor.4 Their living conditions are reported as worse than those of poor children in 15 of the 18 Western industrialized countries, by the Luxembourg Income Study.5 These children are the most likely to attend inadequate schools and to face danger in their neighborhoods and communities and the least likely to have access to recreation and support services.
Almost 4 million children are growing up in severely distressed neighborhoods, areas that have high levels of at least four of the following risk factors: poverty, unemployment, high school dropouts, female-headed families and family reliance on welfare.6 These children are in double-jeopardy for they are surrounded by mirror images of their
own vulnerability.
Almost one-third of all households with children report that their neighborhood quality is "poor"
or "fair." This negative response rises to just under one-half from households with only one
adult present.7
For some children, the rise in violence has created a brutal reality. In the United States, a child dies from gunshot wounds every 2 hours,8 and 3 million children each year are reported abused or neglected.9 In 1993, over one-third of male high school youth, and nearly 1 in 10 of female students, reported that they had carried a weapon (a knife, razor, club or firearm) at least once during the previous 30 days. One in 7 male high school students reported carrying a gun within the last month.10
Other alarming indices show that the teen suicide rate, youth violent crime arrest rate and the unmarried teen birth rate are all rising.11 Using a cumulative risk index, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that in 1992, only 45 percent of 15-year-olds, 31 percent of 16-year-olds,
24 percent of 17-year-olds and 16 percent of 18-year-olds are "risk free."12
For those children who survive and graduate from school, the job market they enter is tighter, more competitive and highly specialized. A high school graduate as well as a high school dropout is unlikely to secure a decent-paying job upon which a family can be supported. Today, one-third of all male workers earn less than it takes to lift a family of four out of poverty.13
This generation lives in an increasingly diverse society, one that can provide an enormous opportunity for cultural richness-or for distrust and resentment. In three states and the District of Columbia, "minority" children already make up the majority of the child population.14 Consider, also, that with the "graying of America," growing numbers of elderly will depend on the productivity of working adults for their economic support. Among those future working adults are today's minority children.15
Children live in a different world today than that of their grandparents. In some ways, it is a better world. More children today are better fed, better educated and free from dangerous childhood diseases. However, this progress is not shared equally by all children. Today's children face new hazards that were not even imagined by previous generations.