The proportion of children living in families with high income increased from 17 percent in 1980 to 25 percent in 1997, while the proportion of children living in extreme poverty grew slightly, from 7 to 8 percent, over the same period. These shifts reflect a growing income disparity among children. The percentage of children living with their parents who had at least one parent working full time all year increased 5 percentage points, to 76 percent, from 1993 to 1997. A large share of this increase was due to the increase in the percentage of children living with employed single mothers, which increased from 33 percent in 1993 to 41 percent in 1997. Most American children and adolescents had a diet that was poor or needed improvement in 1996.
Teenagers are also less likely than younger children to have a usual source of medical care.
Over 27 percent of uninsured adolescents in this age group lacked a usual source of care. In 1997, this percentage was the highest in over 20 years, at 7.5 percent. The increase in low birth-weight is partly due to the rising number of twin and other multiple births. The percentage of children in families living in poverty who have received the combined series of vaccines increased between 1996 and 1997, from 69 to 71 percent. While the mortality rate for almost all groups of children continues to fall, it has fallen most dramatically among black children ages 1 to 4, from 67.6 per 1,000 in 1996 to 59.2 in 1997, according to preliminary data.