“2008 Special Focus Report: Trends in Infancy/Early-Childhood and Middle-Childhood Well-Being, 1994-2006”
Children feel safer at school, perform better on national tests, and are healthier by some measures, says a report published annually by the New York City-based Foundation for Child Development.
Released April 24, the report looks at how U.S. children fare in their first decade of life across 25 indicators, including health, education, social relationships, behavior, and economic well-being.
The study says children’s overall health is being “dragged down” by rising obesity rates and increased numbers of low-birth-weight babies. It adds that if trends in job losses, the housing-finance crisis, and inflation continue, “family economic well-being is likely to decline.”
“These findings suggest that it is important to invest in children’s well-being from as early as birth, ” the report says.
