UNICEF Finds US Among Worst Places to be a Kid

The United States lags behind nearly every other developed country in many of the factors that contribute to child well-being, according to a UNICEF report released in February. The report, “An overview of child well-being in rich countries,” collected data from 30 countries on 40 indicators that spanned every part of a child’s life – including poverty, home environment, health, and education. Of the 21 nations that had enough data to be included in the overall ranking, the U.S. finished 20th, just barely ahead of the United Kingdom.

The report highlighted severe deficiencies in nearly every part of an American child’s life that contributes to that child’s academic and economic success. The magnitude of the glaring social problems underscores the idea that if Americans are serious about improving students’ achievement, we may have to start looking outside of schools.

The Challenges of Poverty

Children from poverty backgrounds are severely underserved in our education system, and on the UNICEF report’s first measure – relative poverty – the U.S. finishes last by a significant margin (Note: relative poverty is defined as the percentage of children living in homes that have incomes below 50 percent of the national median. This measures wealth distribution in a country, not absolute resource deprivation, which is much harder to measure. The U.S., for example, has an average income well above many countries, but it also has a higher cost of living than many countries).

A Home Conducive for Learning

Learning starts at home, and the U.S. does not perform well on this front. UNICEF asked fifteen year-olds to identify how many “educational possessions” – such as desks, computers, calculators, dictionaries, or textbooks – they had in their homes. On this measure, the U.S. was in the middle of the pack. However, only 12 percent of children in the U.S. report having 10 or more books in their home – 22nd of 24 countries.

On two measures of family life, the U.S. also showed poor finishes; the U.S. was far ahead of all other nations in single-parent homes and was 23rd of 25 in percentage of children who reported eating the main meal of the day with their parents “several times per week.”

Health Care and Health Habits

Health is another area where the U.S. lags behind all other comparable nations. Demonstrating the problems with the U.S. health care system, UNICEF found that the U.S. had the second highest infant mortality rate and third highest rate of low birth weight babies. If our country is failing to provide adequate pre-natal and early childhood health care, then we are saddling our children with health problems that will further detract from their opportunity for academic success.

The health habits of American children were only a little brighter. The U.S. ranked in the best five for percentage of teens who smoke (third), get drunk (fifth), and report regular physical activity (third). At the same time, however, the U.S. is 20th of 21 in percentage of children who eat breakfast every day, 18th of 22 in percentage of children who eat fruit every day, and dead last in preventing childhood obesity. Furthermore, the U.S. also has the highest teen birth rate – three times that of Germany and almost five times that of France. This country has clearly had effective campaigns against cigarette and alcohol use, but we are still failing our children in other important ways.

Education

Finally, we come to direct measures of education. UNICEF notes that one glaring and important omission from the report is attendance of early childhood education, for which there is unfortunately little internationally comparable data. The report also provides no measures of education prior to secondary education. At the secondary level, however, the United States again lags. On the PISA examinations of reading, math, and science, for example, the U.S. finishes 21st of 25.

However, international test scores can be misleading, and the report contains much more fascinating information. Measuring the percentage of 15 to 19 year-olds enrolled in full time or part time education, the U.S. ranks 21st of 23. However, when American fifteen year-olds are surveyed about whether they “expect to find work requiring low skills,” the U.S. is solidly in first, with only 15 percent saying yes – a much lower rate than in other countries.

This is an unanswered question posed by the UNICEF report. Why are American children so seemingly ambitious but also so much more likely to drop out of school and take low-skill, low-paying jobs than children of almost any other developed nation?

What is abundantly clear is that we are failing to nurture our children. We fail to provide children the basic tools they will need in order to lead a healthy and successful life, and we send them to schools that do not have the resources to effectively prepare them for the future. These failures on the part of our society may have considerable consequences for our nation and its future.

Prepared by Matthew Samberg, March 15, 2007