More children these days are performing at grade level in school, eating breakfast with at least one parent and abiding by imposed television rules, according to a Census Bureau report titled "A Child’s Day."
The report surveyed parents to analyze benchmarks of well-being for 73 million children from a 2003 review of income, The New York Times said Jan. 11, and the results were compared with similar surveys in 1994 and 2000.
"We hadn’t noted anything where children were doing worse," Tallese Johnson, a co-author of the report, told The Times.
Among the findings, the number of children considered "on track" academically increased to 75 percent from 69 percent in 1994.
With the escalation of inappropriate material on television, parents more often are making certain programs off-limits for their children and are regulating viewing time, the report found.
In 1994, 54 percent of 3 to 5 year olds were given such rules, but the number grew to 67 percent in 2003. Among 6 to 11 year olds, the number grew from 60 percent to 68 percent, The Times reported, and from 40 percent to 44 percent among 12 to 17 year olds.
"It’s good news that more parents are restricting TV viewing because we know that children who watch a lot of TV are more likely to be obese," Andrew J. Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, told The Times.
Most children have dinner each night with at least one parent, the study found, though breakfast is less likely to be coordinated. Among children under age 6, 57 percent have breakfast every day with at least one parent, compared to 51 percent in that age group in 1994.
But slightly more than one-third of 6 to 11 year olds and fewer than one-fourth of 12 to 17 year olds have breakfast with at least one parent.
Nearly four in 10 children have been in regular child care, the Census study found, and children are more likely to be placed in child care when parents are better educated and wealthier.
The study said Hispanic children are least likely to have been read to by their parents but Hispanic children like school most often. And 41 percent of children participate in the National School Lunch Program, which is meant to assist children in public schools whose families have lower incomes, the study found.
For more information, visit www.census.gov. (BP)
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