Do Americans Really Like Children . . . Yet?
Group 1
Members: Satine Gorgyan Megan Holland Vardui Khorikyan Hermine Sarkisian
Then / 2009Cite Source / Your Impressions of the Data between Then and Now
1 / Infant mortality
“Our rate is the fifteenth among 42 nations having comparable data, which is almost twice the rate of Sweden. Infant mortality rates for American whites are much higher than the national average, and mortality rates of nonwhite infants born in America's 20 largest cities approach the rates in urban areas of underdeveloped countries.” (Keniston). / Infant Mortality
- According to the central intelligence agency’s “The Worlds FactBook”, the United States is ranked at 174 out of 222 countries for its infant mortality rate of 5.98. (CIA 2012)
- The United States has the highest rate of infant mortality for being a rich nation (Huffington Post, 2012)
-In the United States, the most common causes of infant mortality are congenital malformations and disorders associated with low birth-weight and short gestation.
- America's relative performance is declining. In 1960, the United States had the twelfth lowest infant mortality rate in the world. By 1990, we had dropped to twenty-third, and we sank to thirty-fourth in 2008. (Huffington Post, 2012) / There has been a decline in the infant mortality rate in the United States. We went from being 12th to now, 174th in the world (CIA FactBook, 2012). But for being such a rich and strong nation, in comparison to other nations, our mortality rate is still somewhat high. We have one of the highest capita of beds in a hospital that could hold patients, but due to health care and other factors, we do not make it easy to provide these patients adequate care. (Huffington Post, 2012). I would expect that in the United States there would be enough money and other resources to help mothers and their babies to decline the rate of infant mortality. According to the facts from Keniston’s article and now, it seems as if the article was written sometime during the 1960’s.
2 / Adequate health care
-“We are among the very few modern nations that do not guarantee adequate health care to mothers and children… Approximately one-quarter of all American children do not receive anything approaching adequate health care, nor did their mothers before they were born –whence our graceful infant mortality rates… Inadequate prenatal care of mothers increases the chances that children will be born dead, defective, or sickly… Inadequate healthcare increases the chances of illness or transforms minor illnesses into permanent handicaps.” (Keniston) / *Adequate health care
-“More Than One Child in Four Lacks Regular Access to Health Care”
(
-“Just having health insurance does not guarantee that our children have access to healthcare. Non-economic factors also interfere with access to health care services. In many poorurban and rural communities there are too few health professionals. These are federallydesignated as “health professional shortage areas”, or HPSAs. An inadequate supply of healthprofessionals inevitably results in sparse distribution. Many families, particularly in ruralcommunities, must travel long distances to get to a doctor. In these communities unaffordable,unavailable and/or unreliable transportation can be a powerful, but often overlooked, barrier tohealth access.”( National Rural Health Association
*Percent of children with health insurance
-“In 2005, there were 9 million children
(11.2%) without health insurance, representing a growth of 361,000 from 2004 to 2005.” (
-“23.7 million US children experience challenges inaccessing health care:
- Uninsured: 9 million
- Gaps in coverage: 11.5 million
- Transportation barriers: 3.2 million”
*Percent of children immunized
- “…an undetermined number of children have so-called “catastrophic” health insurance that covers hospitalization but not routine care such as immunization.” (
-“One out of five children (20%) living in families below the federalpoverty level do not get even one well child visit during the year. One serious consequence ofdenying children access to preventive care is delayed immunizations. Partial or delayedimmunization status places their health, and the health of the other children with whom theycome into contact, at risk.”
( National Rural Health Association / It is unfortunate to find out that much hasn’t change from the time of Keniston’s article and now. According to an article I found on the Children’s Health Fund (CHF) website, there are the same amount of children, if not more, who lack regular access to health care. The CHF article also lists details of barriers that families and children encounter in order to access adequate health care. As a teacher, it is important to be aware of such difficulties that a family can be facing.
I would’ve never thought that immunizations were difficult to access in this country. I’m surprised to learn that some insurance companies wouldn’t cover such simple preventative care such as immunizations. What are we, a third-world country? My dogs have better access to vaccines! If a child isn’t vaccinated for easily preventative diseases and comes in contact with other people, this poses a tremendous risk for our society.
3 / Child Malnutrition.
- “A United States Department of Agriculture survey shows that between 1955 and 1965, a decade of risingagricultural productivity, the percentage of diets deficient in one more essential nutrients actually increased. Millions of American children today remain hungry and malnourished” (Keniston) / Malnutrition
-According to the USDA, over 16 million children lived in food insecure (low food security and very low food security) households in 2010.
-16 million kids aren’t sure where their next meal will come from (Save the Children, 2010).
-13 million children live in homes with limited access to food (Live Strong, 2009). / I think child malnutrition has always been a major concern. I believe that the statistics have actually gotten worse. The Keniston article explains that millions of children are malnourished, but now the USDA reports 16 million children being malnourished. All the statistics found today explain 13-16 million children living in malnourished homes, which is reported by Save the Children organization and Live Strong). Even in the past though, as the Keniston article explains, even at an agricultural high point children were malnourished. I believe this is because the children and parents were not aware of how important a well balanced diet is on growth and brain activity. Now with the economic downturn, parents can’t afford to keep their children properly nourished.
Children in Poverty
‘We say that children have a right to the material necessities of life and yet of all age groups in America, children are the most likely to live in abject poverty. In fact, one-sixth of them I live below the officially defined poverty line. One-third lives below that level defined by the government as "minimum but adequate". And we are the only industrial democracy that lacks of a system of income supports for families with children. In this area, we are an underdeveloped nation.’ (Keniston) / Children in Poverty
- “New York City (February 14, 2012) – By the sheer numbers, and contrary to some common stereotypes about the country’s poor, America has more white children living in low-income families than any other race. More than 12.1 million white children live in low-income families; compared to:
- 10.7 million Hispanic children;
- 6.5 million black children;
- 1 million Asian children;
- 400,000 American Indian children; and
- 1.3 million children of other races.
- At the same time, black and Hispanic children are more likely to live in low-income families than white children. Sixty-four percent of black children and 63 percent of Hispanic children lived in such families compared to 31 percent of white children. The statistics are revealed in newly-released fact sheets from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), based at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.”
- “There are more than 72 million children under age 18 in the United States: of those, 31.9 million live in low-income families (44% of all children); and 15.5 million live in poor families (21% of all children). Low income ($44,700 for a family of four) is defined by NCCP as being twice the official federal poverty level ($22,350 for a family of four).”
5 / School Achievement (graduation rates)
- “Yet, on a variety of standard achievement tests the absolute gap between rich and poor and between black and white students as well, is greatest at the twelfth grade level” (Keniston) / Achievement Gap
-“Children of poor families are up to six times more likely to drop out of High School than wealthy children” (DoSomething.org, 2012).
-The achievement gap between poor and rich has doubled the gap between black and white children (Stanford University 2009).
-“Test scores between affluent and low-income students had grown by 40% since 1960” (University of Michigan, 2010).
-“In the 1950’s and 1960’s in which race was more consequential than family income” (Stanford University, 2009). / The Keniston article ties the achievement gap between poor and rich with race, showing that they are both vital issues. Also by tying the two together it makes it seem like they both have the same degree of difference. Currently, as the statistics stated by Stanford University (2009) the gap between rich and poor is much greater than the difference among black and white students. I believe that the achievement gap among students because of social economic status, has been a problem for a while, but with the economic downturn, has become more predominant in the school and a greater problem.
Group 2
Group 2 Members: Allison, Nancy, Lakeita and Jonathon
Cite Source / Your Impressions of the Data between Then and Now
6 / Maternal Employment
“It is a simple fact that last year for the first time in our history more than half of all mothers of school-age children in two-parent families worked outside the home, mostly full-time.” (Kinston) / Nancy:
The labor force participation rate--the percent of the population working or looking for work--for all mothers with children under age 18 was 70.6 percent in 2011, little different from 70.8 percent in 2010. In 2011, the participation rate for married mothers with
a spouse present (68.7 percent) remained lower than the rate for mothers with other marital statuses (74.6 percent).
Jonathan:
The labor force participation rate--the percent of the population working or looking for work--for all mothers with children under age 18 was 70.6 percent in 2011. In 2011, the participation rate for married mothers with a spouse present (68.7 percent) remained lower than the rate for mothers with other marital statuses (74.6 percent).
Allison:
From a different statistical view, in 1975, 60% of all women in the labor force had children of school age (6-17 years old). In 1980, 64%. In 1990, 75%. Peaked in 2000 at 79%. And in 2010, 77%.
/ Nancy:
Mothers now are working more than when the Kinston article was written. 70.6 percent of all mothers with children under the age of 18 are working. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011) Since the article there has been a twenty percent increase in women working.
Jonathan:
Although the rate has increased significantly, I actually thought it would be higher.
Allison:
These numbers are slightly different as they are the stats for specifically school-aged children. It is a higher percentage. It shows that more women go back to work when their children are older
7 / Single parent families with children
“Another trend is the disappearance of non-parental relatives from families. In 1949, about 50 percent of single parent families with children under six were headed by a relative other than the mother or father. By 19__, this proportion had dropped to 20 percent.” (Kinston) / Nancy:
Single parent families
11.6 million
Number of single parents living with their children in 2009. Of these, 9.9 million were single mothers and 1.7 million were single fathers. Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2009 Tables FG5
Jonathan:
In 2009, 7.8 million children (under 18) lived with at least one grandparent, a 64 percent increase since 1991 when 4.7 million children lived with a grandparent, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Among children living with a grandparent, 76 percent also were living with at least one parent in 2009, not statistically different from the 77 percent who lived with at least one parent in 1991.
children/cb11-117.html
Allison:
To add some other statistics to the above mentioned: According to the US Census Bureau 2010, for single employed mothers, primary childcare arrangements (preschool children under 5) were provided in percentage (stats are rounded and approximate as I had to combine data myself and was looking for any correlations): siblings 2.5%, grandparents 27%, other 9%, daycare center 19%. / Nancy:
United States Census, (2009)
Single parent households also have risen from Kinston’s journal. Of 9.9, million were single mothers and 1.7 million were single fathers. (United States Census, 2009)
Jonathan:
This is not the same as what Kinston was reporting on. Having difficulty finding the statistics for that.
Allison:
At first I mistakenly did the statistics for children 5-14 and found different data. In comparison, this age group had: siblings 10%, grandparents 20%, other 10%, daycare 5%. It is interesting to see the shift in childcare by age group. My family as childcare stats for 2010 are higher than the 20% in 19xx.
8 / Single women giving birth ratio –
“In the 1960s, about 1 out of every 20 giving birth was not married; by 1972, this ratio to 1 out of every 8.” (Keniston) / Nancy:
Single women giving birth ratio – 33%
Percentage of women age 15 to 50 with a birth in the last 12 months, as of 2006, who either were widowed, divorced or never married. About 199,000 were living with an unmarried partner. Source: Fertility of American Women: 2006 <
Jonathan:
In 2010, more than four in ten births (41 percent) were to unmarried women.
Allison:Childbearing by unmarried women has resumed a steep climb since 2002.
Births to unmarried women totaled 1,714,643 in 2007, 26% more than in 2002. Nearly 4 in 10 U.S. births were to unmarried women in 2007.
Birth rates have risen considerably for unmarried women in their twenties and over, while declining or changing little for unmarried teenagers.
(Data from the Natality Data Sets, National Vital Statistics System at / Nancy:
Keniston refers to single woman ratio of the 1960’s, and 1972, which means this article had to have been made after 1972. There are about 33% of all single women are having children. (Census, 2006)
Jonathan:
According to Keniston, the percentage in 1972 was 12.5%. In 2010 it was 41%. It increased 328%. That is amazing to me. I can’t wrap my head around it.
Allison:
There has been a significant climb in the birthrate to unmarried mothers. This shows a cultural change in our society over the past 40 years. As there can be advantages in two parent homes, the data reflects that the structure of the modern family is changing.
9 / Time children are with TV/technology (technological babysitter)
“What has replaced the people in the family? For one, television has become a kind of flickering blue parent for many children. Indeed, this technological babysitter occupies more of the waking hours of American children than any other single influence --including both parents.” (Keniston) / Nancy:
Time children are with TV/technology
Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time 'media multitasking' (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.
Jonathan:
I found same as Nancy and what follows.
A Nielsen study last year found that children aged 6 to 11 spent more than 28 hours a week using computers, cellphones, televisions and other electronic devices. A University of Michigan study found that from 1979 to 1999, children on the whole lost 12 hours of free time a week, including eight hours of unstructured play and outdoor activities. One can only assume that the figure has increased over the last decade, as many schools have eliminated recess in favor of more time for academics.