U.S., Britain Faulted
on Child Welfare
UNICEF: U.S., Britain
Rank Last in Child Welfare
in Industrialized
World
By DAVID McHUGH, AP
from abcnews.go.com on the Web, February 15, 2007
BERLIN -- The United States
and Britain ranked at the bottom of a U.N. survey of child welfare in 21 wealthy
countries that assessed everything from infant mortality to whether children ate
dinner with their parents or were bullied at school.
The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Finland, finished at the top of
the rankings, while the U.S. was 20th and Britain 21st, according to the report
released Wednesday by UNICEF in Germany.
One of the study's researchers, Jonathan Bradshaw, said children fared worse in
the U.S. and Britain despite high overall levels of national wealth because of
greater economic inequality and poor levels of public support for families.
"What they have in common are very high levels of inequality, very high levels
of child poverty, which is also associated with inequality, and in rather
different ways poorly developed services to families with children," said
Bradshaw, a professor of social policy at the University of York in Britain.
"They don't invest as much in children as continental European countries do," he
said, citing the lack of day care services in both countries and poorer health
coverage and preventative care for children in the U.S.
United States questioned the comparisons made by the study, while Britain said
it failed take into account recent social improvements.
The study also gave the U.S. and Britain low marks for their higher incidences
of single-parent families and risky behaviors among children, such as drinking
alcohol and sexual activity.
Britain was last and the U.S. second from the bottom in the category focusing on
relationships, based on the percentage of children who lived in single-parent
homes or with stepparents, as well as the percentage that ate the main meal of
the day with their families several times per week. That category also
counted the proportion of children who said they had "kind" or "helpful"
relationships with other children.
The report's authors cautioned that the focus on single-parent families "may
seem unfair and insensitive" and noted that many children do well with one
parent.
"But at the statistical level there is evidence to associate growing up in
single-parent families with greater risk to well-being including a greater risk
of dropping out of school, of leaving home early, poorer health, low skills and
of low pay," the report said.
On average, 80 percent of the children in the countries surveyed live with both
parents. There were wide variations, however, from more than 90 percent in
Greece and Italy to less than 70 percent in Britain and 60 percent in the U.S.,
where 16 percent of adolescents lived with stepfamilies.
Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of The Children's Fund charity in Britain, said
the UNICEF report also showed that less than half of British children reported
good relations with their peers.
"That really jumped off the page," he said, citing concerns about the
competitive, ratings-based school environment in Britain and higher reported
incidences of bullying and fighting. "The environment for these young
people is quite negative."
The study ranked the countries in six categories, based on national statistics:
material well-being, health and safety, education, peer and family
relationships, behaviors and risks, and young people's own subjective sense of
well-being. Both the U.S. and Britain were in the bottom two-thirds of
five of the six categories.
The U.S. finished last in the health and safety category, based on infant
mortality, vaccinations for childhood diseases, deaths from injuries and
accidents before age 19, and whether children reported fighting in the past year
or being bullied in the previous two months.
Britain finished at the bottom in behaviors and risks, which considered factors
such as the percentage of children who had breakfast, ate fruit regularly,
exercised, were overweight, used drugs or alcohol, were sexually active or
became pregnant.
Both the U.S. and British governments criticized the report.
Wade Horn, an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human
Services, said the study's standard of measuring poverty differed from that of
the United States.
A family of four is defined by the U.S. as living in poverty if its combined
income is less than $20,650 a year. The poverty threshold used by the
report was an income of $35,000 a year for a family of four, he said.
"I think when you try to compare nations in a report like this, you tend to
ignore so many other factors specific to those nations that the comparison
becomes somewhat meaningless," Horn said.
State Department spokesman Paul Denig was also critical of the report and said
his department first learned of the study through the media and was not asked to
provide input.
Britain said the report did not take account of recent improvements to
education, health and general living standards in the country. Some of the
statistics also went back as far as 2001, it said.
In general, northern European countries with strong social welfare systems
dominated the upper half of the rankings. Southern European countries,
such as Spain, Italy and Portugal, ranked higher in terms of family support and
levels of trust with friends and peers.
Associated Press Writer Kevin Freking contributed to this
report from Washington.
http://www.unicef.org/media/files/ChildPovertyReport.pdf
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