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The U.S. Is the Second Worst Place To Raise Children!

A UNICEF study rated the U.S. as the second-worst country for raising children among 21 developed countries. The study measured everything from the number of books in the home to infant-mortality rates, drinking, drug use and the percentage of children who eat meals with their families.

Child well-being was highest in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, which invest heavily in children and families, offering paid family leave, health coverage, and quality day-care. In addition to flunking on these measures, the U.S. trailed all 20 developed nations except England on children's diet, weight, physical activity level, exposure to violence, bullying and the number of 15-year-olds who smoke, drink and have sex.

Some reasons for America's miserable showing became apparent in the data regarding relationships with family members and friends.

Most American children don't eat the main meal of the day with their parents. Most American children say they don't spend time "just talking" to their parents. And most American children don't find their peers "kind and helpful."

Small wonder that in the ten to fourteen age group alone, there's been a four-fold increase in suicides over the past fifty years. A staggering 1 out of 5 high school students seriously considers or attempts suicide.

Half of all teenagers report that they're "unhappy or depressed;" one in four says that they've been so sad or hopeless in the past two months that they stopped doing some of their usual activities.

Because of its high poverty rate, the U.S. scored in last place on infant-mortality rates, vaccinations, and the percentage of newborns with low birth weights. It also reported more deaths of children from accidental injuries than any developed country, apparently because the firearms-related death rate for children under 15 years old is nearly 12 times higher than that of the other industrialized countries combined.

What do you think? Is the U.S. a good place to raise kids?

5/24/2007 7:00:00 AM

Written by Dr. Laura Markham

Laura Markham, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist trained at Columbia University in New York. She’s held many challenging jobs (she started and ran a weekly newspaper chain), but thinks raising children is the hardest, and most rewarding, work anyone can do.

View Full Profile Website: http://yourparentingsolutions.com/

Comments

Thanks to 40 years of wealth being taken from the middle class and working families and being redistributed to the super rich through outsourcing,shifting the tax burden onto middle class, and decrease in wages; more and more things have been taken out of our control. In 1976, 99% of us had a total of 80.1% of American wealth, today 99% of us have 53% of wealth. Today poitics and money go hand in hand. If we continue down the path of trickle down(the path we have been pursuing for 40 years) greed and money will only play an even more important role in politics. The Republicans with help from blue dog dems cut programs that benefit society so we can give tax cuts to wall street bankers and corporate outsourcers. We increase military spending (now 60% of budget) but most people don't think we should even be there. Unfunded wars,tax cuts for billionaires, and the repulibcans only solution is to cut medicare, social security, education Some more statistics: USA has worst child poverty rate of any industrialized nation 20%, compared to Netherlands, 2nd place, with 7%. USA has worst income inequality of any industrialized nation. The top 1 percent of American earners now have tax rates half what they were in the 1970s. And they took in 23.5 percent of the nation’s pre-tax income in 2007 — up from less than 9 percent in 1976. During the boom years of 2002 to 2007, that top 1 percent’s pre-tax income increased an extraordinary 10 percent every year. In that same period, the average inflation-adjusted hourly wage went down more than 7 percent and the poverty rate rose. We are taxed more, earn less, get less benefits, and work more hours OF COURSE this is a terrible place to raise a child, or live compared to the other industrialized nations.

Posted by DrInushi

Amac, do you really think education is underfunded? Increasing funding in the past has not changed results, because the system was left untouched; public schools are monopolies. If you send your child to public school, then they HAVE to go to the school they're zoned for, not the one you want them to go to. The teachers at my school were downright L-A-Z-Y. To this day, it baffles me on how they got away with being as lazy as they were. They did the absolute minimum to collect their union protected paycheck. What if that weren't the case? What if you could send your child to any public school you wanted, and the school received funding based on how many children attend that year? That's how they do it in Belgium, the country with the highest international test scores among 40 industrialized nations. Here's a piece John Stossel did in Reason Magazine on the issue. <url removed> Check out this special from 20/20. It's called "Stupid in America". <url removed> PS, Shoot the T.V. ;-)

Posted by CET

Hey John, I pulled the plug on TV over 3 years ago and never looked back. If you met me, you would not think I'm that "radical" either! Is it really "radical" to eliminate the most toxic and prolific source of negative and frenetic energy in our homes? People ask me: "What if you miss something important?" That has never happened! I always mangage to find out what I need to know. And my relationship to my family is the most important. It is their news that is the most important news for me to tune into each day. TV news is not really news anyway. Sports? How about a friend's house for the big game. I prefer to play them with my kids than watch. We kept the "box" and the dvd player. We enjoy an occasional movie without interuption from Big Pharm, Big Foodie or Britany Spears. It's pretty cool really! And thanks Dr. Markham for your information and excellent website.

Posted by Mary Kay Morgan, MS CPT

Well, we eat at home or together usually and my kids (still young 7,8 & 15) are very tight and fun to talk with. But, every day it seems like some new adult-oriented concept I wasn't planning on talking about (yet) is introduced to them through TV. That's tough and sure we could pull the TV plug, but we're not that radical I guess. We just keep talking about all these concepts and the girls seem to take it all in with facination and interesting opinions of their own. I think the biggest danger is not talking about all the new things they are learning or seeing every day. We have neighborhood kids who try to come over to our house all the time just to get some real food, conversation and positive attention, because it doesn't exist in their home. That's sad and not a geographical issue (I think).

Posted by John Valenty

John, I think the freedom, technology, and material comforts in the U.S. afford the opportunity for it to be the best place for children to be raised. However, I think the U.S. education system is drastically under-funded. I think that's a huge problem because education is a key ingredient -- possibly the most important -- to what creates a bountiful society. \n \nAlso, I agree with Laura that the quality of family relationships is different than in many other countries. I've been to almost 20 different countries and I can attest that people are way closer with their families in most other countries than in the U.S.\n \nHere, it's a rush to get the kids into college and out to work. Then they move away and call once a week. In other countries families have very close ties. They often live in large homes or communities together and dine every night together. The fast paced materialism of the United States is well... just different. \n \nPersonally, I love being independent, living away from my family, and I'm perfectly content. I see them a couple times a year and that's fine for me. But I can see that it's possible that this lack of family closeness might cause some issues. We do have the highest murder rates and quite high crime rates. And we're not even in the top 10 most educated countries in the world. Check out this article: <url removed> \nDon't get me wrong; in all my travels I always come back with a renewed sense of gratitude for life in America. But, I think things in certain arenas are sliding downhill slowly like our education system and being respected internationally. Also, China's arguably the most powerful nation in the world right now. I hope that rumor isn't true! Their gov't is scary! :-)\n \nDisclaimer: I didn't read the report and I don't have kids; I'm just an opinionated young fool!\n \nAmac

Posted by Aaron M

John, I agree with you that many of the factors that make the U.S. score low are within the control of parents, such as spending time "just hanging out" with their kids, and eating dinner together. Many, however, are not, such as kids in the U.S. finding their peers unkind.

I wonder how many parents out there regularly have dinner with their children? And if you do, what do you talk about?

-- Laura

Posted by Dr. Laura Markham