An index on the well-being of California’s chil­dren finds improve­ments in the past ten years. The researchers who con­ducted the study do fear that the global reces­sion could hurt those improvements.

Five dif­fer­ent mea­sure­ments were tracked over the past ten years includ­ing edu­ca­tion, emo­tions, health, eco­nom­ics and teen preg­nancy. All areas saw improve­ment except for fam­ily eco­nom­ics and the num­bers of chil­dren liv­ing below the poverty level.

From the Press Enter­prise, writer Lora Hines unpacks the report’s details.

A new index released today by the Lucile Packard Foun­da­tion for Children’s Health, a Palo Alto-based char­ity, shows how chil­dren have lived based on data, such as poverty and teen birth rates, tracked from 1995 to 2006. Researchers cal­cu­lated that the over­all mea­sure of child health and well-being improved by 16 per­cent in California.

How­ever, esti­mates sug­gest that next year more than one in four chil­dren in Cal­i­for­nia will be liv­ing below the poverty line.

“This index gives Cal­i­for­nia a solid bench­mark to gauge progress in advanc­ing the health of chil­dren,” said Dr. David Alexan­der, the foundation’s pres­i­dent and chief exec­u­tive offi­cer. “We have made slow, steady progress, but present eco­nomic con­di­tions now threaten these gains.”

Duke Uni­ver­sity soci­ol­o­gist Ken­neth Land cre­ated the index based on a national model he devel­oped for the foun­da­tion, which it has released annu­ally since 2004. He reviewed an esti­mated 250 indi­ca­tors and ana­lyzed five areas, edu­ca­tional achieve­ment, emo­tional well-being, fam­ily eco­nom­ics, health and behav­ioral con­cerns, to come up with his find­ings. Land tracked improve­ments in almost all five areas except for fam­ily eco­nom­ics, which dropped dramatically.

“Although it’s impos­si­ble to deter­mine just how much poverty will affect the over­all Cal­i­for­nia index, poverty rates are likely to weigh down what, at least until 2006, were gen­eral improve­ments in child well-being,” Land said.

More than 1.2 mil­lion chil­dren live in River­side and San Bernardino coun­ties. In 2008, 17 per­cent of River­side County chil­dren lived in poverty, accord­ing to U.S. Cen­sus data. Almost 21 per­cent of San Bernardino County lived in poverty.

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