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QuickStats: Percentage* of Children and Adolescents Aged ≤17 Years Who Have Experienced a Specified Stressful Life Event,† by Type of Event and Family Income§ — National Health Interview Survey,¶ United States, 2021
Weekly / July 21, 2023 / 72(29);807
Abbreviation: FPL = federal poverty level.
* With 95% CIs indicated by error bars.
† Percentages for the specified stressful life events are based on the following questions: 1) “Has child ever been the victim of violence or witnessed violence in their neighborhood?”; 2) “Has child ever been separated from a parent or guardian because the parent or guardian went to jail, prison, or a detention center?”; 3) “Did child ever live with anyone who was mentally ill or severely depressed?”; 4) Did child ever live with anyone who had a problem with alcohol or drugs?” Having any stressful event was based on having answered “yes” to any of these four questions. The four stressful life event questions come from a larger battery of questions on adverse childhood experiences.
§ As a percentage of FPL, which is based on family income and family size, using the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds. Family income was imputed when missing.
¶ Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. population.
In 2021, 20.2% of children and adolescents in families with incomes <200% of FPL and 12.0% of those in families with incomes ≥200% of FPL had experienced at least one specified stressful life event. Children and adolescents in families with incomes <200% of FPL were more likely than those in families with incomes ≥200% of FPL to have had the following experiences: lived with someone with alcohol or drug problems (9.1% versus 5.8%); lived with someone who was mentally ill or severely depressed (8.8% versus 6.5%); lived with someone who had been in jail (8.8% versus 2.9%); or been the victim of or witnessed violence in their neighborhood (7.2% versus 3.1%).
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Interview Survey, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/index.htm
Reported by: Amanda E. Ng, MPH, qkd2@cdc.gov; Basilica Arockiaraj; Benjamin Zablotsky, PhD.
For more information on this topic, CDC recommends the following link: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/index.html
Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Percentage of Children and Adolescents Aged ≤17 Years Who Have Experienced a Specified Stressful Life Event, by Type of Event and Family Income — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023;72:807. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7229a7.
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