NCJ Number
197696
Date Published
1997
Length
124 pages
Annotation
This book presents the best available data for measuring the educational, social, economic, and physical well-being of children in the Nation's 50 largest cities and the Nation as a whole.
Abstract
Each of the 50 cities is assessed in terms of 10 key indicators of child well-being. These are percentage of low birth-weight babies in 1994; infant mortality rate in 1991; percentage of births to mothers who received late or no prenatal care in 1994; percentage of all births to females under age 18 in 1994; percentage of youths ages 16-19 who were high school dropouts in 1990; percentage of youths ages 16-19 who were unemployed in 1990; percentage of children under age 15 who lived in households that received public assistance in 1989; percentage of children in poverty in 1989; percentage of children in single-parent families in 1990; and percentage of children who lived in "distressed neighborhoods" in 1990. The data show that between 1969 and 1989, the child poverty rate in the 50 largest cities increased from 18 to 27 percent, and the national child poverty rate increased from 15 to 18 percent. Children and youth in central cities were twice as likely as their suburban peers to be part of a female-headed household, 36 percent compared with 17 percent in 1996. Children who grow up in such households face much greater odds of dropping out of school or, in the case of young women, becoming unmarried mothers. Dropping out of school was almost twice as prevalent in the cities as it was in the suburbs (14 percent compared to 8 percent). Perhaps the most troubling data show that approximately one-half of all children in the country who lived in "distressed neighborhoods" (high concentrations of poverty, female-headed families, unemployment, and welfare dependency) resided in 1 of the 50 largest cities. Multiple risk factors in these communities increase the likelihood that kids growing up there will be unprepared to be effective parents, be productively employed, or contribute to civic life. Extensive tables and figures and appended cities in rank order by indicator and child poverty rates in the 50 largest cities for 1969-89