State’s Children Fare Poorly in U.S. Survey

California’s children--especially the state’s low-income youngsters--are more likely to be in poor health, to have no usual source of health care and to live in families in which parents worry about putting food on the table than those in other states, according to the first survey of families’ well-being conducted by the Urban Institute.

Taking the pulse of American families in 1997 on the eve of the nation’s welfare reform experiment, the researchers found that in the 13 states they studied, the financial, physical and emotional health of families varied enormously. On the first two measures--financial and physical health--California came in below the average.

But in the third measure--psychological well-being--researchers found that Californians both wealthy and poor were in line with counterparts elsewhere. Ten percent of the state’s children (close to the national average) were found to be living with a parent who felt “highly aggravated” with their child or children. About 27.5% of California’s low-income children were living with parents who appeared to be in “poor mental health”--a figure just above the national average. And low-income parents in California reported “behavioral and emotional problems” in 5.7% of their 6- to 11-year-olds and 7.8% of their 12- to 17-year-olds--also about average.

The Urban Institute report is the first and most comprehensive of a spate of private efforts to gauge the impact of welfare reform on families across the nation. The survey results released Monday amount to snapshots that will form a basis for comparison with later surveys of the same sort, to be conducted each year for several years to come. Interviewing adults and children in 44,461 households (2,543 in California), researchers asked a battery of questions in compiling the National Survey of America’s Families.

Researchers selected the 13 states--Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin--because together they represent half the U.S. population and a broad range of economic health, child welfare and views toward government programs.

Kristin Moore, one of the study’s authors, said Monday that by assessing mental health, behaviors like family reading and participation in school activities, researchers hope to make predictions about welfare reform’s long-term effects on children and families.

For now, however, the survey results released Monday told little about how welfare reform will change family life from state to state. But by permitting comparisons among states, they let researchers identify the toughest challenges that some states will face.

Among the 13 states, California ranked second-highest, behind Mississippi, in the proportion of low-income families and in the proportion of children living in poverty. While 20% of California families live in poverty (defined as $12,641 for a parent and two children), 28% of the state’s children live in such circumstances. Nationally, 14.8% of all Americans, and 20.5% of all children, live in poverty.

Almost four in every 10 California parents earn less than $31,822, which qualifies them as low-income. And among low-income Californians, 59% reported they either have experienced food shortages or they worry about running out of food before they can afford to buy more. Nationally, 54% of low-income Americans had similar fears.

About 18.5% of California’s children live in low-income families where parents are “not confident” that they could get their child needed medical care (compared to 14.2% nationwide). And 14.4% of those children have no “usual source of health care,” according to their parents. Meanwhile, 12.2% of California children in low-income families are in fair or poor health--significantly more than the national average of 8.2%.