In Brief... World News Review: Better Living Standard Doesn't Equal Better Living

Good news-poverty is down in the United States and the number of children growing up in high-income homes doubled in the last 20 years. So says America's Children 2001 report, a federal government document. (High-income is defined as having at least $68,116 annually for a family of four.)

But, a better average living standard doesn't translate into better living for all. More children live in single-parent homes—a staggering 26 percent of the total, most of which are single-mother families. And 42 percent of the children in those single-mother families live in poverty.

Even among those children who live in wealthy homes, the news isn't all good. The same report showed that more parents are working, which means that children enjoy their supervision less. Less parental supervision means more social problems.

Some of the problems with which U.S. children are dealing are indicated by the following statistics:

• Births to unmarried teenage girls are up from 62 percent of all teenage births in 1980 to 88 percent in 1999 (the last year statistics were available).
• Tobacco use remains high-21 percent of high school seniors smoked daily in the 30 days previous to the survey.

Source: Kathleen Parker, Tribune Media Services.