New Report on the State of Children in America

The Federal Interagency Forum on Children and Family Statistics, which is a group of 22 agencies that gather statistics on children and families, recently released a report on the health and well-being of America’s youth.

According to an article in Health News, the new report included adoption statistics for the first time.
The article said that the report found that “children who are adopted beyond their first several months of life suffer disruptions in parenting that can have long-term effects on their well being as well as their development.”

The report also said that 2.5 percent of the children in the United States are adopted, and 21.5 percent are adopted by parents of a different race, according to the article. It also found that “68 percent of preschool-age adopted children are more likely to be read to on a daily basis in comparison to 48 percent of non-adopted children.”

More interesting information the article found from the report is that teen birth rates and preterm birth rates have dropped and less teens are binge drinking. The article also said that there are more children living in poverty and in homes with “at least one parent has not had full time work for a full year. It also found that more “more eighth-graders are using drugs” according to the article.