The Foundation for Child Development Child and Youth Well-Being Index (CWI) Project

International Comparisons of Child Well-Being – The United States and Four English-Speaking Countries.

The Foundation for Child Development Child and Youth Well-Being Index (CWI) Project issued its annual update on trends in the quality of life of America’s children and youths on April 17, 2007. This focused report compliments the annual update.

In previous years, the CWI Project has focused on a specific domain or set of indicators associated with the U.S. Child Well-Being Index, such as educational attainment or safety and behavioral concerns. For this year’s report, we compare U.S. trends in child and youth wellbeing with those of four other English-speaking or Anglophone countries, specifically: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. These nations are chosen for comparisons with the U.S. because:

• all share a common language;
• Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S. were colonies of the United Kingdom at one time;
• all five nations are liberal democracies that have representative democratic forms of government;
• all five also place considerable emphasis on the use of economic markets for the production and distribution of goods and services; and
• because of the above, all share at least some elements of culture.

In this Report, some of the differences in several of the Key International Indicators are highlighted. We then describe a summary ‘report card’ that shows comparisons of the U.S. with the four comparison countries on all 19 indicators. Our discussion of the indicators is organized into the seven domains/areas of social life of child and youth well-being that comprise the CWI, namely, Family Economic Well-Being, Social Relationships (to family and peers), Health, Safety/Behavioral Concerns, Educational Attainments, Community Connectedness (to educational, economic, and political institutions), and Emotional Well-Being.

For further information

Contact	:	Kenneth C. Land, Project Coordinator, Duke University, North Carolina
Email	:	kland@soc.duke.edu

WWW

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http://www.duke.edu/