America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007

Indicators Needed

Economic Circumstances

Economic security is multifaceted, and several measures are needed to adequately represent its various aspects. While this year's report continues to provide some information on economic and food security, additional indicators are needed on:

• Economic well-being. Economic well-being over time needs to be anchored in an average standard of living context. Multiple measures of family income or consumption, some of which might incorporate estimates of various family assets, could produce more reliable estimates of changes in children's economic well-being over time.
• Long-term poverty among families with children. Although Federal data are available on child poverty and alternative measures are being developed (see Indicators ECON1.A and ECON1.B, Child Poverty and Family Income, and the discussion of alternative poverty rates on Child Poverty and Family Income), the surveys that collect these data do not capture information on long-term poverty. Long-term poverty among children can be estimated from existing longitudinal surveys, but changes to current surveys would be needed to provide estimates on a regular basis. Since long-term poverty can have serious negative consequences for children's well-being, regularly collected and reported data are needed to produce regular estimates.
• Homelessness. At present, there are no regularly collected data on the number of homeless children in the United States, although there have been occasional studies aimed at estimating this number. Congressionally-mandated Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data include household identifiers. Expanded use of local HMIS will provide more family-level data for homeless service users and greater opportunities for demographic and longitudinal analysis of homeless families.