According to the Child Well-Being Index (CWI), the nation's most comprehensive measure of trends in the quality of life of children and youth, the well-being of American children has improved only five percent since 1975.

Dramatic declines in rates of violence and risky behaviors such as teen births, smoking, and alcohol and illegal drug use during the past 10 years have been offset by increases in child poverty, persistent, high rates of obesity, and a failure to improve educational achievement.

The Child Well-Being Index (CWI) is a national, research-based composite measure  updated annually that describes how young people in the United States have fared since 1975.  It combines national data from 28 indicators across seven domains into a single number that reflects overall child well-being.  The seven quality-of-life domains are family economic well-being, health, safety/behavioral concerns, educational attainment, community connectedness, social relationships, and emotional and spiritual well being.

CWI-related findings released in March 2006: 

• There were no improvements in reading scores for 13- and 17-year-olds on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), the nation's report card. NAEP scores for math since 1978 for 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds increased slightly. This overall lack of progress kept the education domain a virtual flat line from 1978-2004.
• Advances in the community connectedness domain mean that more three- four-year-olds are going to Prekindergarten, and more young adults are going to college.
• After improving during the 1990s, since 2000, the economic well-being of families with children has declined.
• The health domain continues to decline, led by rising levels of child obesity. The increase in obesity has offset improvements in infant mortality and the increase in health insurance coverage among children.
• The social relationships domain continues to fall as the proportion of children living in single-parent families increases.
• The greatest improvements for America's youth since 1975 were seen in the safety/behavioral domain. Fewer teenage girls are having babies; fewer children smoke, drink, and use illegal drugs; and fewer commit crimes or become the victims of crime.
• Progress in the emotional/spiritual well-being domain reflects the steady decrease in the number of children who are committing suicide, and a general increase in student attendance at religious services.