America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009

Indicators Needed

Family and Social Environment

Current data collection systems at the national level do not provide extensive detailed information on children's families, their caregivers, or their social environments. Certain topical databases provide some of this information, but data need to be collected regularly across domains of child well-being. More details are needed on the following topics:

• Family structure. Increasing the detail of information collected about family structure and improving the measurement of cohabitation and family dynamics were among the key suggestions for improvement emerging from two "Counting Couples" workshops sponsored by the Forum.
• Time use. Currently, some Federal surveys collect information on the amount of time children spend on certain activities such as watching television and on participation rates in specific activities or care arrangements, but no Federal data source examines time spent on the whole spectrum of children's activities. In 2003, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing. The survey includes responses from persons age 15 and older. Since the numbers of observations for older youth are small, the data cannot be published separately for each year. ATUS data may be included in future America's Children reports as a regular indicator as more years of data become available. Forum agencies continue to be interested in the inclusion of time use questions for youth in other surveys, as appropriate.
• Social connections and engagement. The formation of close attachments to family, peers, school, and community have been linked to healthy youth development in numerous research studies. Additional research needs to be conducted to strengthen our understanding of how these relationships promote healthy development and protect youth from risks that, in turn, affect later life success. We currently lack regular indicators on aspects of healthy development, such as relationships with parents and peers, connections to teachers and school engagement, and civic or community involvement. To that end, the Forum co-sponsored the Indicators of Positive Development conference to define and measure healthy youth development and continues to be interested in developing appropriate measures of social connection and engagement.