According to the UNICEF report, the United States of America is one of

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   gmwilliamsposted 11 years ago

   the WORST places to raise children.  The report stated that children in the United States have a low quality of life due to a low quality of education, childhood obesity, raising cost of healthcare, and teenage pregnancy.  The report further stated that the United States ranks near the bottom of countries to raise children behind Slovenia, Greece, Hungary, and Slovakia.  The report ranks the United States 26th out of 29 nations regarding giving children a high quality of life.   Do YOU agree or disagree with THIS report?

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   psycheskinnerposted 11 years ago

   I would suggest reading the UNICEF report before making all kinds of assumptions about it. This is a group that does a lot of good work. The idea they just  sit about and "denigrate" rather than actually helping people is ridiculous. I personally think they have more than earned the right to have an opinion.

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   prettydarkhorseposted 11 years ago

   http://www.unicef.org/media/files/Child … Report.pdf
   
   If you are talking about this report -  page 2 report proper,  US is last among developed countries that are included in terms of health and safety.
   Although of course UNICEF is a big org and their data is dependable this can't capture overall happiness index or other cultural indicators. They have to consider that we are a large population, 310 million and yes there are lots of things happening here sexual predators, kidnappings (by known to the child or relatives mostly), etc, but I still like it here. I can see no other reason why my child can't have equal opportunity here and yes she is safe.

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   Shanna11posted 11 years ago

   I was reading through the report and saw this on one of the graphs:
   "– percentage of children reporting
   low family affluence
   – percentage of children reporting
   few educational resources
   – percentage of children reporting
   fewer than 10 books in the
   home"
   
   They gathered their data from children? The children reported it? If this is the case, I'm a bit skeptical of it's veracity.
   
   How does a kid even know what affluence is?

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   Reality Bytesposted 11 years ago

   The United States is a Union of fifty sovereign states.   I would like to see how the state of Massachusetts ranked in research like this?

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   psycheskinnerposted 11 years ago

   The data sources are specified here: www.unicef.org/media/files/RC11-ENG-embargo.pdf

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      prettydarkhorseposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      oh, I think we cross posted Ms psyche

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   prettydarkhorseposted 11 years ago

   Oh, this is what you are talking about
   
   http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc11_eng.pdf
   
   pp 2 of that report based on this news http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?N … Wbh6rXrxhN

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   psycheskinnerposted 11 years ago

   Yes, no doubt we cross posted while I was having a stroll through the data.  It is pretty complex as this is a meta-analysis of multiple local data-sets.  But nothing seems wildly off kilter in how they did it. But these things always have a considerable amount of wiggle in them.

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      prettydarkhorseposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Right. They do collect data from different census and vital record offices in different countries.

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