The Foundation for Child Development (FCD)
Following an upward trend that peaked in the early 2000s, improvements in the quality of life of American children have “come to a standstill,” according to FCD’s annual comprehensive measure of child well-being. The index, which began in 1975, is an evidence-based measure of 28 key national indicators across seven quality-of-life domains. Its data sources include the U.S. Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control and Injury Prevention, and the National Center for Education Statistics.
The finding that researchers found most disturbing was that the measure of children’s health has sunk to its lowest point in more than 30 years, driven in large part by a rise in childhood obesity and smaller than normal declines in child mortality rates in recent years. Free. 21 pages. (212) 213-8337, http://www.fcd-us.org/usr_doc/2007CWIReport-Embargoed.pdf.
