Indicators of Child, Family, and
Community Connections

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Contract No. HHS-100-01-0011

Produced by
Laura Lippman, Project Director

This report is available on the Internet at:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/connections-charts04/

Printed Copy (in PDF format)

Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Availability of Trend Data
Conceptual Framework
Family Structure

• Family structure
• Family structure change
• Families with grandparents who live nearby
• Births to unmarried teens

Family Functioning

• Parental warmth and affection with younger children
• Positive parent-adolescent relationships
• Parental awareness of adolescents' friends and activities
• Time spent with parents
• Contact with nonresident parents

Family, Work, and Child Care

• Parental employment by family structure
• Work-family stress
• Family income
• Patterns of child care

School Involvement and Civic Engagement

• Parental involvement in school
• Volunteering as a family
• Student participation in community service
• Parental voting
• Youth connection to school peers
• School supportiveness

Religiosity

• Parental religious service attendance
• Adolescent participation in religious activities with their families

Social Connections

• Neighborhood community
• Community of friends
• Concern for safety
• Residential mobility

Appendix A: Data Sources

List of tables

Family Structure

• Table 1. Percentage of children under age 18 by presence of married parents in household, by race and Hispanic origin: selected years 1980-20023
• Table 2. Percentage of families with children 2-17 years of age that have experienced a change in family structure during the past two years, by selected characteristics: 2001 5
• Table 3. Percentage of families with children age 24 and under in the household that had grandparents who lived nearby, by selected characteristics: 1992-1993
• Table 4. Births per 1,000 unmarried teen women within age groups, by race: 1960-2001

Family Functioning

• Table 5a. Percentage of parents of children under age 13 who expressed various forms of warmth and affection every day in the past month, by selected characteristics: 1997
• Table 5b. Percentage of adolescents with positive relationships with their resident parent, by selected characteristics: 1999
• Table 6. Percentage of adolescents who report that their parents are aware of their friends and activities, by gender and selected characteristics: 2000
• Table 7. Average amount of time (in hours and minutes) per day that children under age 13 are engaged in some activity with parents, by selected characteristics: 1997
• Table 8. Percentage of children with any contact with nonresident parent in the previous year, by selected characteristics, as reported by resident parent: 1997

Family, Work, and Child Care

• Table 9. Distribution of families with children under age 18 by family structure and parental employment, by age of child: 2002
• Table 10. Percentage of working parents who report that they do not have enough time for their family because of their job, by gender and selected characteristics: 1997
• Table 11. Median family income among households with a related child under 18 years old, by selected characteristics: 2001
• Table 12. Percentage of children from birth through age 6, not yet in kindergarten, by type of care arrangement, by selected characteristics: 2001

School Involvement and Civic Engagement

• Table 13. Percentage of students in grades K through 12 whose parents report involvement in their child's school, by selected characteristics: 1996 & 1999
• Table 14a. Percentage of adults who volunteered with family members in the past year, by race and Hispanic origin: 2001
• Table 14b. Percentage of students in grades 6 through 12 participating in community service, by selected characteristics: 1996 & 1999
• Table 15. Percentage of parents with children under 18 in the household who voted in the last election, by selected characteristics: 2000
• Table 16a. Percentage of youth who feel connected to peers in their school, by selected characteristics: 1995-1996
• Table 16b. Percentage of youth who perceive their school to be supportive, by selected characteristics: 1995-1996

Religiosity

• Table 17a. Percentage of parents attending religious services weekly or more often, by selected characteristics: 1997, 1999, and 2002
• Table 17b. Percentage of adolescents who participate in religious activities (e.g., going to a worship service, praying, reading scripture) with their families weekly or more often, by selected characteristics: 2000

Social Connections

• Table 18a. Percentage of adults with people in their neighborhood who give them a sense of community, by selected characteristics: 2000
• Table 18b. Percentage of adults with old or new friends who give them a sense of community, by selected characteristics: 2000
• Table 19. Percentage of adults who list concern for their safety as an obstacle that makes it difficult to be involved in their community, by selected characteristics: 2000
• Table 20. Percentage of families with children under 18 that moved in the past year, by selected characteristics: 2002

[ Go to Contents ]

Acknowledgements

We would like to especially acknowledge the Expert Panel for their thoughtful review and valuable comments throughout this project. The Expert Panel guided the selection of both the indicators and paper topics. Members of the Expert Panel included:

• Patrick Fagan, William H. G. Fitzgerald Research Fellow in Family and Cultural Issues, The Heritage Foundation
• Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow: Economic Studies , The Brookings Institution
• Donald Hernandez, Professor, Department of Sociology, State University of New York, Albany
• Sandra Hofferth, Professor, Department of Family Studies, University of Maryland
• Velma McBride Murry, Professor, Associate Professor of Child and Family Development, Co-Director of the Center of Family Research in the Institute for Behavioral Research, University of Georgia
• David Murphey, Senior Policy Analyst, Vermont Agency of Human Services
• Steven Nock, Professor, Department of Sociology, Director of the Marriage Matters project, University of Virginia
• Shepherd Smith, President and Founder, Institute for Youth Development
• Gary Stangler, Executive Director, Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative
• James Youniss, Professor, Department of Psychology, Catholic University of America
• Nicholas Zill, Vice President, Westat, Inc.

Project Director
Laura Lippman, Child Trends

Chartbook Manager
Stephanie Cochran, Child Trends

Indicator analysts and writers included: Sharon Bzostek, Julie Dombrowski, Kerry Franzetta, Sarah Garrett, Lina Guzman, Susan Jekielek, Akemi Kinukawa, Erik Michelsen, Suzanne Ryan, and Sharon Vandivere, Child Trends. Lina Guzman provided technical review. Harriet Scarupa edited the chartbook. We would like to thank Brett Brown and Kristin Moore, Child Trends, and Christine Ross, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. for their valuable review and comments.

We would also like to thank the following members of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office of Human Services Policy: Don Winstead, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Service Policy, Barbara Broman, Deputy to the Deputy Assistant Secretary, Julia Isaacs, Director, Division of Data and Technical Analysis, Martha Moorehouse, Director, Division of Children and Youth Policy, Sonia Chessen, Senior Policy Analyst, Anne Fletcher, Project Officer, Social Science Analyst, Kelleen Kaye, Project Officer, Senior Program Analyst.

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Last updated: 09/13/04