Introduction
Every generation of adults, and American adults in particular, has been concerned about the well-being of their children and youth (Moore 1999). From the stagflation and socially turbulent days of the 1970s in the US through the decline of the rust belt industries and transition to the information age in the 1980s to the relatively prosperous e-economy and multicultural years of the late-1990s followed by the economically uncertain and politically anxious early years of the twenty-first century, Americans have fretted over the material circumstances of the nation’s children, their health and safety, their educational progress, and their moral development. Are their fears and concerns warranted? How do we know whether circumstances of life for children in the United States are bad and worsening or good and improving? On what basis can the public and its leaders form opinions and draw conclusions?
