Thursday July 19 12:01 AM ET

Federal Child Statistics Released

By ANJETTA McQUEEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - While American children are growing up wealthier than ever, this generation of youngsters doesn't appear to be significantly healthier, wiser or better behaved.

From 1980 to 1999, the share of children growing up in a high-income home doubled from 16.8 percent to 29 percent, according to the annual look at federal child statistics released Wednesday. A high-income home is at least four times the federal poverty level; in 1999, that meant at least $68,116 in annual income for a family of four.

In that period, poverty fell steadily and more American parents found work, according to figures that drew immediate praise from the Bush administration.

``It's a good time to be a child in America,'' said Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson, who promised more funds to address youth issues.

``These findings represent important victories for children and adolescents,'' said Dr. Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, an HHS agency that specializes in child research.

However, U.S. youngsters statistically marched in place by many other measures - test scores and some student achievement remained flat and bad habits like smoking and drinking continued about the same pace as before, according to the America's Children report.

For instance:

-In 1980, 21.3 percent of high school seniors said they smoked daily, by 2000 the percentage of seniors smoking regularly was 20.6 percent.

-Eighty-six percent of American youth had finished high school or earned diploma equivalents in 1999. In 1980 that figure was 84 percent.

``It's a cautionary tale of progress,'' said Margaret C. Simms, research director of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank that specializes in racial issues. ``Economic expansion is not enough to put all families on equal footing.''

Household incomes have risen for all groups of children - including minority children, but many of them are in families that lack proper health insurance coverage, she said.

The annual study is compiled by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics using information from 20 federal agencies. The forum is a federal and private research partnership created by the government in 1994.

Researchers followed health, education, economic and education trends among America's 70.4 million children under the age of 18. The report is based on the most recently available statistics, primarily from 2000, 1999 or 1998. Some parts of the report compare recent trends to those from 20 years ago.

Government agencies touted short-term gains. In recent years, teen pregnancies, youth violence and deaths have declined from the 1990s, the figures showed.

``Some of the declines we are seeing are off crazy peaks,'' said Douglas Besharov, a welfare expert at the American Enterprise Institute. In the 1980s, he said, crack cocaine increased social problems among youth such as violence, substance abuse, unplanned pregnancies.

He also said steep rises in divorce rates affected the stability of children across all cultural and economic lines. For about a century, more than 75 percent of U.S. children lived in a two-parent household. By 2000, the report said, for the first time, a quarter of children lived in single parent homes - most with their mothers.

Scholars said more personal wealth is good and important news, but that it doesn't automatically translate into good health or education.

``As we are becoming a wealthier nation, our diet is deteriorating,'' said William Galston, a University of Maryland professor in public policy.

He pointed to figures that show, over time, that the general health of children, the share with chronic sicknesses and the percentage who received proper immunizations, changed little.

Children need help from their communities and families as well as the government, if they are going to learn to take good care of themselves and have the means to get medical help when they need it, he said.

Simms said many children lose their health coverage - which includes important checkups and booster shots - when their parents start working. Policies are not offered, or the parents find them much more burdensome than public assistance, Simms said.

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On the Net:

Report available at http://childstats.gov

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001