Well-Being of America's Children

In 1998, the Foundation for Child Development (FCD) provided Kenneth Land a grant to explore the feasibility of producing the first national composite index of the status of American children that would chart changes in their well-being over time. Important questions needed to be answered: was it possible to trace trends in child and youth well-being over several decades? Could such an index provide a way of determining whether the United States was making progress in improving its children s lives? The Index of Child and Youth Well-Being (CWI) was born from these questions. Viewing the CWI trends from 1975 to present, there is evidence that the well-being of American children lags behind other Western nations. As conditions change, it is clear that the index is an evolving and rich enterprise. This volume attests to that evolution, and what the CWI promises for understanding the progress or lack of progress in enhancing the life prospects of all American children. This volume attests to the evolution of the Child Well-Being Index and asks what it promises for understanding the progress - or lack of progress - in enhancing the life prospects of all American children. Recent research on the general problem of conceptualizing and measuring the well-being of children and young people is covered, as well as the conceptual foundations of the Child Well-Being Index and its methods of construction. Further, the authors assess the methodological issues involved in the construction of composite quality-of-life indices and the question of the extent to which the Child Well-Being Index can be scaled to apply meaningfully to levels of analysis below the national level. In the end, the questions of what this Index tells us about changes in child and youth well-being in the US across recent decades at national, state, and substate regional levels and in international comparisons, and which additional data series need to be developed so that the Index can be improved, is addressed.