Investing in public programs matters: How state policies impact children’s lives: 2012 STATE Child and Youth Well-being Index

pdf Published 2012

Foundation for Child Development, 2012.

The Child Well-Being Index (CWI) is a national American, research-based composite measure, updated annually, that describes how young people in the United States have fared since 1975. The CWI is the nation’s most comprehensive measure of trends in the quality-of-life of children and youth.  In addition to the national report card, the Foundation for Child Development has worked to develop report cards at the state level, because the vast majority of funding for programs affecting children and youth in the US is spent by state and local governments (in Canada, provincial and local governments pay the lion’s share).

This report looks at data on a state-to-state basis, and analyzes the impact of different state policies on child well-being.  The STATE CWI is based on 25 indicators clustered into seven different domains of child well-being. These are the same seven domains used annually in the construction of FCD’s NATIONAL CWI. The seven domains are:

  • Family Economic Well-Being
  •  Health
  • Safe/Risky Behavior
  • Educational Attainment
  • Community Engagement
  • Social Relationships
  • Emotional/Spiritual Well-Being

The key findings from this study are:

  • Higher State Taxes Are Better for Children. States that have higher tax rates generate higher revenues and have higher CWI values than states with lower tax rates.
  • Public Investments in Children Matter. The amount of public investments in programs is strongly related to CWI values among states. Specifically, higher per-pupil spending on education, higher Medicaid child-eligibility thresholds, and higher levels of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF – welfare) benefits show a ubstantial correlation with child well-being across states.
  • A Child’s Well-Being Is Strongly Related to the State Where He or She Lives.