The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Children

Virtually
all the progress made in children’s well-being since 1975 – particularly the
improvements of the 1990s — will be wiped out by the current recession,
according to a
report released on Wed., June 3, 2009 at the New America Foundation.

“We will
lose ground that had been gained over the past three decades,” said Kenneth C.
Land, project coordinator for the Child and Youth Well-Being Index, which uses
federal statistics to track how American children are faring in domains such as
health, safety and education. The 2009 edition was released today and included a
special focus report on anticipating the impacts of the 2008-2010 recession.

The report
shows that children’s well-being started to decline last year and is expected to
dip to its lowest point in 2010, when many economists believe the full impact of
the recession will be felt.

It projects
that next year 21 percent of children will be in poverty and 28 percent will not
have at least one full-time working parent. The median income for all families
will drop to $55,700. Single-parent households led by fathers will be hardest
hit.

The
economic downturn will ripple across other domains as well, according to the
report, causing breakdowns in community ties (driven by unemployment or housing
crises) and family structure (due to an expected uptick in divorce rates). Fewer
children at 3 and 4 will be enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs, and violent
crime will likely increase. The number of children reporting good health is
expected to dip (with obesity rates increasing due in part to a reliance on less
healthy foods), but government health insurance policies should lessen the
economy’s ill effects. 

Panelists at today’s event, who remarked on the report’s
conclusions and the economy’s impact on children, included Ruby Takanishi,
president of the Foundation for Child Development; Greg Acs, senior fellow at
the Urban Institute; Barbara Bowman, adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan on early education; and Reihan Salam, fellow at the New America
Foundation.  The event was moderated by David Gray, director of the Workforce and Family Program at the New America
Foundation.

The Child Well-Being Index is funded by the
Foundation for Child
Development and
coordinated by the Child Well-Being Index Project at Duke
University.

Participants
Kenneth Land
John Franklin
Crowell Professor of Sociology, Duke University

Ruby Takanishi
President, Foundation for
Child Development 

Reihan
Salam
Fellow, New America Foundation

Barbara Bowman
Chief Officer for Early Education at the Chicago Public Schools
Consultant to the Secretary of Education

Greg Acs
Senior Fellow, Urban
Institute 

Moderator
David Gray
Director, Workforce and Family
Program, New America Foundation