Report Finds Quality of Life for California Children Is in Decline

The quality of life for California’s children has steadily declined in the last four years as more and more young people have been forced to cope with poverty, child abuse and violence, a report released by an advocacy group concluded Thursday.

While Orange County ranked better than the state in some categories, local children’s advocates warned Thursday that social problems have been increasing and are “moving in the wrong direction.”

Nearly three-fourths of the state’s children now live in communities where violent crime is worse than the national average and where homicide has become a major cause of teen deaths, the report found.

In all but one county in California, it said, reports of child abuse exceed the national average.

Prepared by the nonprofit organization Children Now, the report used statistical data collected by state and federal agencies to track the well-being of children in California. It focused on education, health care, safety and family life.

The organization has been compiling the information since 1989, using it to urge state and local governments to improve programs for children.

This year’s report noted several encouraging trends, although officials in the organization insisted that the increase in violence and poverty outweighed improvements in other areas. The report found, for example, that high school dropout rates have decreased since 1988 in more than three-fourths of the counties and that writing achievement scores have improved in more than half of the counties.

In a majority of the counties, it said, child support collections have improved markedly, although they are still below national averages, even in Orange County.

“(But) the trends that are going in the wrong direction, unfortunately, are the ones that have the greatest long-term consequences for children, and they’re the most difficult to reverse,” said Wendy Lazarus, vice president for policy for the organization. “These include the increases in violence, in poverty rates and in teen birth rates.”

“The message there in Orange County is that some of these trends are really a wake-up call,” Lazarus added. “And it’s not too late, the county should be focusing on these issues now.”

For example, in the area of violent crimes such as homicide, forcible rape, and robbery per 100,000 population, Orange County was ranked “better” than the state and national averages.

But the rate, which was 459 per 100,000 in 1988, has steadily increased to 564 in 1991, according to the study, Lazarus said. The violent crime rate for the state was 1,080, contrasted with the national rate of 758.

The wake up bell for Orange County was the economic recession, said Shelly Westmore, acting director for Orangewood Children’s Foundation in Orange.

“For too long, we’ve been considered a county of affluence and abundance,” Westmore said. “But we have gang problems, and violence problems, and we need to do something about them.”

Orange County did fare worse than the state average in the category of late or no prenatal care, and in health checkups for needy children.

The county also was worse than the national average in the rate of child abuse reports and preventable teen deaths due to homicide.

Poverty among California’s 7.8 million children worsened in the last decade, according to the report, in three-fourths of the counties and increased statewide from 15.2% to 18.2%.

Although they varied widely from county to county, the report said teen birth rates were higher than the national average in more than half of the counties. The highest birth rate--108 per 1,000 teen-age women--was recorded in rural Yuba County and the lowest--17 per 1,000--in Marin County.

Los Angeles County rated poorly in almost all of the categories, particularly those addressing violence. For example, although only 13% of the state’s teen-agers 15 to 19 reside in Los Angeles County, about 61% of all teen-age homicides in the state in 1991 occurred in the county. Likewise, the rate of violent crime in the county was twice the national average.

Lazarus said Los Angeles County also rated near the bottom in eighth-grade achievement tests, child support collections, and the number of poor children who were provided health checkups and immunizations.

Times staff writer David Reyes in Orange County contributed to this report.