The Americas Promise Index

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The Americas Promise Index
Kristin Anderson Moore, Ph.D. Senior Scholar and
Senior Research Scientist Child
Trends International Society for Child
Indicators Conference
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• History of Americas Promise
• Americas Promise was founded at the Presidents
  Summit for Americas Future in 1997, where
• Presidents Bush, Carter, Clinton, and Ford, and
• former first lady Nancy Reagan, challenged the
• nation to make children and
• youth a national priority.

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Mission of Americas Promise Commitment to
ensure that every child in America has the
fundamental resources (promises) they need to
succeed. The Five Promises are

• Caring adults
• Safe places
• A healthy start
• An effective education
• Opportunities to
• help others

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Every Child, Every Promise

• Americas Promise commissioned the National
  Promises Study to examine the presence of the
  Five Promises in the lives of Americas children
  and youth
• A comprehensive look at the state of Americas
  youth
• Provides benchmark data to quantify the number of
  children receiving the Five Promises, including
  highlighting gaps in the delivery of the Five
  Promises

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• National Promises Study
• Purpose How many young people have the resources
  essential for successful developmental
  trajectories through childhood and adolescence?
• Methodology
• Three surveys developed and administered by
  Search Institute, Child Trends, and Gallup
  (informed by the Alliance Research Council)
• 2,000 12-17 year-olds
• 2,000 parents of 6-11 year-olds
• 2,000 parents of 12-17 year-olds
• Oversamples of African Americans and Hispanic
  Americans
• Best response rate Gallup has had in the past
  two years

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• Promise Caring Adults
• Caring relationships with parents
• Caring relationships with adults in extended
  family
• Caring relationships with adults at school
• Caring relationships with adults in the
  neighborhood (formal and informal)
• 90 of children (ages 6-11 years) and 76 of
  youth (ages 12-17 years) successfully experience
  Caring Adults (have 3 of the 4 indicators)

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• Promise Safe Places
• Safe family
• Safe school
• Safe neighborhood
• Parental monitoring
• Opportunity for involvement in high-quality
  structured activities
• Frequency of participation in high-quality
  structured activities
• 31 of children (ages 6-11 years) and 42 of
  youth (ages 12-17 years) successfully experience
  Safe Places (have 5 of the 6 indicators)

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• Promise Healthy Start
• Regular checkups and health insurance
• Good nutrition
• Daily physical activity
• Adequate sleep
• Health education classes
• Positive adult role models
• Peer influence
• Emotional safety
• 49 of children (ages 6-11 years) and 36 of
  youth (ages 12-17 years) successfully experience
  a Healthy Start (have 6 of the 8 indicators)

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• Promise Effective Education
• Positive school climate
• School culture emphasizes academic achievement
• Learning to use technology
• Reading for pleasure
• Friends value being a good student
• School perceived as relevant and motivating
• Parents actively involved
• Adult sources of guidance
• Opportunities to learn social skills
• 79 of children (ages 6-11 years) and 39 of
  youth (ages 12-17 years) successfully experience
  an Effective Education (have 7 of the 9
  indicators)

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• Promise Opportunities to Help
• Adult models of volunteering
• Peer models of volunteering
• Parent civic engagement
• Family conversation about current events
• Youth role in school and community
• 55 of children (ages 6-11 years) and 53 of
  youth (ages 12-17 years) successfully experience
  Opportunities to Help (have 4 of the 5
  indicators)

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Promises experienced
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• Developmental outcomes
• Children and youth who experience 4-5 Promises
  fare significantly better on 19 of 20 outcomes,
  including
• Thriving
• Violence avoidance
• Educational achievement
• Volunteering

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Thriving among 6-11 year-olds
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Violence avoidance among 12-17 year-olds
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• Diverse groups of youth vary
• Girls experience more Promises than boys
• White children and youth experience more
  Promises than Hispanic or African American
  children and youth
• 12-14 year-olds experience more Promises than
  15-17 year-olds
• Higher family income and maternal education also
  are associated with more Promises

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Promises experienced by gender
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Promises experienced by race/ethnicity
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Promises experienced by age group
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Promises experienced by maternal education
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Promises experienced by family income
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• Additional analyses
• Stepwise regression
• Promises are more important predictors than
  demographic characteristics (i.e., contribute
  more to the variance of developmental outcomes).
• ANOVA
• Experiencing the Promises is associated with
  greater equality across demographic groups in
  developmental outcomes.
• When children and youth experience 4-5 Promises
• 60 of differences between demographic groups
  disappear
• 18 of differences are reduced

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Educational achievement Attenuation of gender
differences
p .05, p .0001
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Volunteering Elimination of racial/ethnic group
differences
p .0001
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Thriving Elimination of differences by age group
p .05
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Thriving Elimination of differences by maternal
education
p .0001
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Violence avoidance Attenuation of differences by
family income
p .01, p .0001
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• Conclusions
• A minority of children and adolescents have the
  resources necessary for optimal development as
  indicated by a sufficient number of Promises.
• Experiencing more Promises is consistently
  associated with better developmental outcomes.
• Disparities in developmental outcomes and
  Promises experienced exist across groups that
  differ by gender, age, race, and parental income
  and education.
• Disparities in developmental outcomes across
  demographic groups are attenuated or eliminated
  when children and youth experience 4-5 Promises.

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• Resources

• Child Trends
• www.childtrends.org
• Databank www.childtrendsdatabank.org
• Search Institute
• www.search-institute.org
• Americas Promise
• www.americaspromise.org
• Every Child, Every Promise report and key
  findings
• www.americaspromise.org/APAPage.aspx?id6584