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A model child: What is the average American 11-year-old boy like? Meet Michael(Times Union (Albany, NY) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 21--Staff writer Michael is a typical 11-year-old according to the U.S. Census Bureau. His parents, John and Carole, were high school sweethearts and married after they graduated. Carole got pregnant almost immediately, so John abandoned his plans for college and got a job with a local construction firm. After sticking with the company for more than a decade, John works full-time and pulls in more than 200 percent of the poverty level. The poverty level for a family of three, with one child, was roughly $15,000 in 2003. John and Carole own their own home. Michael does qualify to participate in the National School Lunch Program, the federally assisted nutrition program. Yet, he eats breakfast with his mom every morning, usually one of his favorite cereals like Wheaties or Cinnamon Toast Crunch. John joins the family a few mornings a week for breakfast, when he's not rushing out the door. Michael is an average fifth-grader. He has never repeated a grade or gotten expelled or suspended. He says he likes school and his schoolwork, and tries hard to get good grades. The home routine When he brings home good marks from classroom work, Carole commends her son. She's also trying to get Michael into good cleaning habits at home and makes sure to comment when he picks up his room and makes his bed before he leaves for school in the morning. She believes that positive reinforcement is the most effective kind. When John gets home from work, the family eats dinner together each night. Michael helps clear the table after the meal, earning praise from his mom. Either Carole or John spends time after dinner with Michael, either playing cards (Michael is obsessed with Texas Hold 'Em without real bets, of course) or a board game, but not until Michael's homework is done. If Carole has a chance before dinner, she plays a game with her son, or, if he's struggling with homework, she tries to help him. Michael likes watching a few shows on TV (especially "Drake and Josh" on Nickelodeon, or cartoons like "Jimmy Neutron" and "SpongeBob SquarePants"), but his parents have firm rules about his television-watching. He's not allowed to watch TV before school in the morning, and only for a few hours at night after he's done his homework, either after he gets home from school or after dinner. He's not allowed to watch shows that mom and dad think are too adult, though as of yet his parents haven't had to enforce this rule. Each month, the family tries to go out on between one and seven outings to the park or out to dinner. Playtime When Michael isn't at school, watching TV or spending time with his parents, he likes to play games on his PlayStation Portable or PS2, or listen to music on his iPod Nano. Though he doesn't read as much as his parents would like (what kid does?), he does like books. He is reading the "Alex Rider" series by Anthony Horowitz and is looking forward to the next book in the Harry Potter series. Michael used to be into video games with cartoon characters, but as he has gotten older, he now enjoys games that involve more realistic sports characters, games like "Madden" or basketball-oriented video games. Neither Carole nor John believe Michael is a difficult child, or that he requires more work than he should. They say they are never angry with their son. Michael's parents want and expect their son to go further educationally than they did, attending and graduating from college. Stephanie Earls can be reached at 454-5761 or by e-mail at [email protected]. This story is based on "A Child's Day: 2003," the third examination of children's well-being and their daily activities. The study, released last month, is based on 2003 data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation. Nearly 10,000 parents were quizzed about more than 18,000 children younger than 18. Michael's habits and qualities conform to the largest proportion of responses for any given characteristic for an 11-year-old, white, non-Hispanic boy. Additional information was added based on current popular activities and habits for 11-year-old boys. To read the full report, visit: http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p70-109.pdf. Also see below the hard numbers on American kids The hard numbers on American kids By TOM KEYSER, Staff writer "A Child's Day: 2003," the third in a series of reports by the U.S. Census Bureau on how children spend their days, examines such activities as eating meals with parents, being read to, participating in extracurricular activities, following parents' rules for watching TV and receiving praise. Based on 2003 surveys of 9,925 designated parents with 18,413 children, the report released last month follows similar ones in 1994 and 2000. Although it contains massive amounts of data, it includes no analysis, leaving experts on children and family to interpret the information differently. For instance, the report says that 75 percent of children 12 to 17 are on track academically, up 6 percentage points since 1964. That and other statistics, such as parents' monitoring their children's TV habits, are seen as good news by Katharine H. Briar-Lawson, dean of University at Albany's School of Social Welfare. "The picture we see is families who are poor struggling to do the very best they can, even though they don't have the resources," she says. "The poorest of the poor do not have their children in after-school programs, music lessons, etc., but even with that, they're still trying to enrich the environment for their children." On the other hand, Bill O'Hare, senior fellow at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, says the data highlight the continuing disparity between the haves and the have-nots. "What really struck me was the persistence of disadvantaged situations for certain groups, like blacks and Hispanics, kids in single-parent families and poverty kids," O'Hare says. "It shows up in these everyday activities that aren't often documented, like eating and having stories read to you. In almost every category, they come out worse than their counterparts." Living arrangements *Of children younger than 18, 71.2 percent live in a two-parent family; 17.2 percent live with separated, divorced or widowed parents; and 11.6 percent live with parents who have never been married. Income *Fifteen percent of children live in families with monthly incomes of less than $1,500. Twenty-eight percent live in families with monthly incomes of $6,000 and above. *Fifty-six percent of children live in households that participate in at least one government-aid program, such as the school-lunch program, food stamps or Medicaid. Academics *Seventy-five percent of children 12 to 17 are on track academically, meaning they're enrolled in the appropriate grade for their age. *Seventy-eight percent of girls 12 to 17 are on track academically, compared to 72 percent of boys 12 to 17. *Seventy-one percent of black children 12 to 17 are on track academically, compared to 75 percent for both white and Hispanic children 12 to 17. *Seventy-six percent of children 12 to 17 with married parents are on track academically, compared to 73 percent of children 12 to 17 with separated, divorced or widowed parents and 69 percent with never-married parent. *Seventy-six percent of children 12 to 17 in families at or above the poverty line are on track academically, compared to 69 percent of children 12 to 17 in families below the poverty line. *Thirty-seven percent of children 12 to 17 whose parents have a bachelor's degree are in a gifted class or doing advance work, compared to 10 percent of children 12 to 17 whose parents did not graduate from high school. *Twenty-five percent of children 12 to 17 in families at or above the poverty level are in a gifted class or doing advance work, compared to 15 percent of children 12 to 17 in families below the poverty level. Repeating a grade *Six percent of children 6 to 11 have repeated a grade. Ten percent of children 12 to 17 have repeated a grade. *Of children 12 to 17, 8 percent of girls have repeated a grade, compared to 14 percent of boys. *Ten percent of both white and Hispanic children have repeated a grade, compared to 17 percent of black children. *Nine percent of children with married parents have repeated a grade, compared to 15 percent of children with separated, divorced or widowed parents and 20 percent of children with never-married parents. *Eight percent of children with parents who have a bachelor's degree have repeated a grade, compared to 15 percent of children whose parents did not graduate from high school. *Ten percent of children in families at or above the poverty line have repeated a grade, compared to 18 percent of children in families below the poverty line. Neighborhoods *Central city: Forty-eight percent of Hispanic children are kept inside because of their parents' perception of danger in the neighborhood, compared to 39 percent of black children and 35 percent of white children. *Metropolitan outside central city: Thirty-three percent of Hispanic children are kept inside because of their parents' perception of danger in the neighborhood, compared to 25 percent of black children and 19 percent of white children. *Nonmetropolitan: 34 percent of black children are kept inside because of their parents' perception of danger in the neighborhood, compared to 25 percent of Hispanic children and 18 percent of white children. Meals *Children younger than 6: Fifty-seven percent eat breakfast with one or both parents seven days a week; 10 percent never eat breakfast with a parent. Seventy-nine percent eat dinner with one or both parents every day; 4 percent never eat dinner with a parent. *Children 6 to 11: Thirty-seven percent eat breakfast with one or both parents seven days a week; 16 percent never eat breakfast with a parent. Seventy-three percent eat dinner with one or both parents every day; 3 percent never eat dinner with a parent. *Children 12 to 17: Twenty-four percent eat breakfast with one or both parents seven days a week; 25 percent never eat breakfast with a parent. Fifty-eight percent eat dinner with one or both parents every day; 3 percent never eat dinner with a parent. Praise, play *Children younger than 6: Ninety-one percent receive praise from a parent at least once a day. Ninety-two percent are talked to or played with just for fun by a parent for five minutes or more at least once a day. Two percent are hardly ever praised, once or not at all in a week. One percent are hardly ever talked to or played with by a parent, once or not at all in a week. *Children 6 to 11: Eighty-one percent receive praise from a parent at least once a day. Eighty percent are talked to or played with just for fun by a parent for five minutes or more at least once a day. Two percent are hardly ever praised, once or not at all in a week. Three percent are hardly ever talked to or played with by a parent, once or not at all in a week. *Children 12 to 17: Sixty-nine percent receive praise from a parent at least once a day. Seventy-four percent are talked to or played with just for fun by a parent for five minutes or more at least once a day. Six percent are hardly ever praised, once or not at all in a week. Seventeen percent are hardly ever talked to or played with by a parent, once or not at all in a week. Reading *Children 1 and 2: They're read to an average of 7.8 times per week. Ten percent are never read to. *Children 3 to 5: They're read to an average of 6.8 times per week. Seven percent are never read to. Interesting statistics *Twenty-three percent of children 1 and 2 whose parents did not complete high school are never read to, compared to 4 percent whose parents have a bachelor's degree. *Sixteen percent of children 1 and 2 in families below the poverty level are never read to, compared to 9 percent at or above the poverty level. *Twenty-two percent of Hispanic children 1 and 2 are never read to, compared to 17 percent of black children 1 and 2, and 9 percent of white children 1 and 2. *Sixteen percent of children with never-married parents are never read to, compared to 14 percent of children with a separated, divorced or widowed parent and 8 percent of children with married parents. TV *Sixty-seven percent of children 3 to 5 have three TV rules imposed upon them (what programs they can watch, what time of day, how many hours they can watch), compared to 68 percent of children 6 to 11 and 44 percent of children 12 to 17. *Seventy-four percent of black children 6 to 11 have the three rules, compared to 68 percent of white children 6 to 11, and 67 percent of Hispanic children 6 to 11. *Seventy-two percent of children 3 to 5 with parents who have a bachelor's degree have the three rules, compared to 59 percent of children 3 to 5 whose parent or parents did not graduate from high school. Activities *Children 6 to 11: Thirty-six percent play an organized sport. Thirty-three percent join a club. Thirty-two percent take dance, music, religion or some other type of lesson. *Children 12 to 17: Forty-two percent play an organized sport. Thirty-four percent join a club. Twenty-nine percent take a lesson. *Twenty-three percent of children 6 to 11 in families below the poverty line play an organized sport, compared to 40 percent of children 6 to 11 in families at or above the poverty line. *Nineteen percent of children 12 to 17 whose parent or parents did not graduate from high school join a club, compared to 46 percent of children 12 to 17 with parents who have a bachelor's degree. *Forty-four percent of white children 12 to 17 play an organized sport, compared to 35 percent of both black and Hispanic children 12 to 17. Copyright (c) 2007, Albany Times Union, N.Y. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |