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 Last week, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics issued a report
describing the well-being of America's young adults. Here are some
highlights, with supplemental information from Child Trends' DataBank and blog. |
Now,
most young women who have children are unmarried (86 percent of births
to women 18-19, and 65 percent to those 20-24, in 2012), reflecting the
fact that most young adults are unmarried. Birth rates for young women (18-24) are at a historic low, though. According to the DataBank, more than four in ten births overall are to unmarried women. Most unmarried births now occur to cohabiting parents.
Our blog post
this week highlights that the rate of childbearing among U.S. teens
15-19 is also at a historic low. This drop is good news for these teens
as they enter early adulthood; for women, having a child as a teen is
associated with reduced educational attainment and an elevated risk of
poverty. See the blog for more nuance. |
The percentage of young adults who've attained higher levels of education has increased gradually, though the cost of college and
the percentage of young adults in debt to pay for it are also up.
Well-educated young adults are good news for their current and future
children, as higher levels of parental educational attainment are linked
to positive outcomes for children, the DataBank says.
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More young adults are getting the amount of leisure-time physical activity recommended
by federal guidelines, though the percentage meeting these guidelines
was still only 30 percent in 2011-12. This is lower than the percentage
of their younger counterparts (12th graders) who participated in school athletics in 2011; according to the DataBank, that number was 56 percent.
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Welcoming shining new scholars
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 The National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families is
excited to welcome our inaugural summer fellows, all Ph.D. candidates
studying issues related to this population. They're each working on a
project for the Center. Marta Alvira-Hammond, of Bowling Green State
University, is studying how emerging (versus traditional) Hispanic
communities are equipped to support low-income families. Arya Ansari, of
the University of Texas, is examining how early care and education
experiences equip Hispanic children for school success. Henry Gonzalez,
of the University of Arizona, is studying the influence of fathers and
father-figures on Hispanic children. Henry is also working on a concept
paper that covers the intersection of the research literature on
Hispanic boys and young men and President Obama's "My Brother's Keeper"
initiative. Visit the Center on LinkedIn!
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Copyright © 2014 by Child Trends
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