Dr. Jermane Bond was commissioned to write the American Journal of Public Health’s “Editor’s Choice” for their October publication. The piece, “Pathways to Optimal Health: A Life Course Framework for Adolescents” discusses the life course perspective (LCP) as an ideal framework for understanding population-level health behaviors and maternal and child health. Glen H. Elder defined the LCP as “a pattern of socially defined, age graded events and roles that is subject to historical changes in culture and social structure.” (Elder GH. Children of the Great Depression: Social Change in Life Experience. 25th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview; 1999.) Dr. Bond believes that we should use the LCP to shape our health goals for adolescents, because the health-related behaviors that we instill in our children in early life can shape stable patterns of future well-being.

Where are hundreds of thousands of African-American children that used to live in some of the nation’s largest cities?

The Associated Press reports that Census data shows that the number, and percentage, of Black children living in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Los Angeles and New Orleans, as well as many other major urban areas, have been cascading downward for years.

Demographers say a number of factors are at play, such as increased use of birth control, but one may surprise. More young African-American couples have moved to the suburbs, for the usual reasons: more space, better schools and greater tranquility. That has reduced the number and percentage of black children in major cities, while the Black older population has remained steady.

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David Bositis, a senior researcher at the Black issue–oriented think tank, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and former Census Bureau demographer sees nothing wrong with the trend, and says cities will benefit.  "On one level, it is a big plus for the cities,” he told a reporter, “People without children are much cheaper than people with children. Especially young people. They are making very little in way of demands on city services."

Read more at BET.

A catastrophic flood emptied New Orleans of much of its black youth. Powerful social forces may be doing a similar thing to places like Harlem and Chicago's South Side.

Over the past decade, the inner-city neighborhoods that have served for generations as citadels of African-American life and culture have been steadily draining of black children.

Last year's census found that the number of black, non-Hispanic children living in New York City had fallen by 22.4 percent in 10 years. In raw numbers, that meant 127,058 fewer black kids living in the city of Jay Z and Spike Lee, even as the number of black adults grew slightly.

The same pattern has repeated from coast to coast. Los Angeles saw a 31.8 percent decline in its population of black children, far surpassing the 6.9 percent drop in black adults. The number of black children in Atlanta fell by 27 percent. It was down 31 percent in Chicago and 37.6 percent in Detroit. Oakland, Calif. saw a drop of 42.3 percent, an exodus that fell only 6 percentage points below the decline in flood-ravaged New Orleans.

Overall, the census found nearly a half-million fewer black children living in the 25 largest U.S. cities than there were a decade earlier. By comparison, the number of black adults living in big cities has hardly budged.

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"Face it: In a lot of suburbs, there was a distinct effort to keep blacks out," said David Bositis, a senior researcher at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and former Census Bureau demographer.

Those barriers have now been falling, he said, opening the door for blacks to follow in the footsteps of white families who had their own diaspora to the suburbs after World War II.

"More African Americans are going to college. There were big income gains during the Clinton administration," Bositis said. "Now they are moving to the suburbs where they have better schools ... They don't want their children in inner-city schools."

Read more at Google News, The Chicago Tribune, CBS News,  The Washington Examiner, St. Petersburg Times, Macon.com, Daily Herald, WFSB, KFMB , The Seattle Times, Kansas City Star, Santa Cruz Sentinel, The Daily Tribune (Oakland) and mlive.com.

The 1997 Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies National Opinion Poll is a national survey of 1,702 adults, which was conducted between March 21 and April 20, 1997. The survey's questions cover a broad range of topics including race relations, politics, devolution, social policy, and children's issues. The following analysis concerns survey findings on children's issues.

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To provide fuller detail on disparities in child health, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies undertook an examination of how child health indicators vary by sociodemographic characteristics. Comparisons are made for the health indicators including low birthweight, health status, unmet dental care needs, ADHD/ADD diagnosis, lifetime asthma diagnosis, learning disability diagnosis, and activity limitation. The findings for Hispanic children and white children are provided in this brief.

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To provide fuller detail on disparities in child health, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies analyzed selected child health indicators [low birthweight, health status (excellent, very good, good, fair, poor or unknown), unmet dental care needs, ADHD/ADD diagnosis, asthma diagnosis, learning disability diagnosis, and activity limitation] by sociodemographic characteristics of the families in which children reside. This brief examines disparities in diagnosing ADHD/ADD and learning disability among children under the age of 18 who are African American, Hispanic or white. Comparisons of the frequency with which diagnoses were received are made between the racial/ethnic groups of children overall and between children of various racial/ethnic groups in families with comparable sociodemographic characteristics (such as family type, educational attainment of householder, employment status of household, poverty status, and health insurance coverage). Hispanic children were found to be less likely than both white children and black children to have received a diagnosis of either condition, although interpreting the meaning of this disparity is complicated by the challenges associated with diagnosing neuro-behavioral conditions such as ADHD/ADD and learning disability.

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To download this publication, click the file icon below.

To provide fuller detail on disparities in child health, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies undertook an examination of how child health indicators vary by sociodemographic characteristics. Comparisons are made for the health indicators including low birthweight, health status, unmet dental care needs, ADHD/ADD diagnosis, lifetime asthma diagnosis, learning disability diagnosis, and activity limitation. The findings for black children and white children are provided in this brief.

Available in PDF Format Only.

To download this publication, click the file icon below.

To provide fuller detail on disparities in child health, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies undertook an examination of how selected child health indicators vary by sociodemographic characteristics such as family type, educational attainment of householder, employment status of household, poverty status, and health insurance coverage. This brief examines disparities in the prevalence of reported low birthweight among children under the age of 18 who are African American, Hispanic or white. Comparisons of low-birthweight frequency are made between the racial/ethnic groups of children overall and between children of various racial/ethnic groups in families with comparable sociodemographic characteristics.

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