Civitas - Tools For Shaping Children's Lives

What Grown-Ups Understand About Child Development

The responsibility of raising children extends beyond the family to society as a whole: A neighbor keeps an eye on the children next door, a company sets a family leave policy, a senior citizen votes for legislators who support spending on child care. In both tacit and explicit ways, all Americans affect the lives of children.

But how much do adults actually know about children and their development? And how does their knowledge or misinformation affect the lives of young kids?

What Grown-Ups Understand About Child Development: A National Benchmark Survey is a landmark study of 3,000 American adults (including 1,066 parents of children aged newborn to six) conducted in June and July of 2000. The fundamental purpose of the survey was to measure the level of accurate knowledge American adults have about child development issues — with particular emphasis on the intellectual, emotional and social development of children aged newborn to six. The survey also sought to understand what the general public thinks about selected policies that impact children and families.

What Grown-Ups Understand About Child Development
250-page Full Report, $18.95
Meet the Advisory Board

What Grown-Ups Understand About Child Development
17-page Executive Summary, $4.95
Meet the Advisory Board

Results of What Grown-Ups Understand About Child Development show that in many important areas, significant knowledge gaps exist.

These gaps hold real implications as to how we raise and interact with our children. Findings include that:

1.	29% of all adults do not understand that brain development can be impacted very early on.
2.	64% of all adults incorrectly believe that educational TV is beneficial to intellectual development.
3.	26% of all adults incorrectly believe that a child as young as six months will not suffer any long-term effects from witnessing violence.
4.	67% of all adults incorrectly believe that working parents cannot develop a bond with their children as strong as stay-at-home parents.
5.	44% of parents of young children incorrectly believe picking up a three-month-old every time he cries will spoil a child.

	*What Grown-Ups Understand About Child Development* 250 pages price: $18.95



	*What Grown-Ups Understand About Child Development* 17-page Executive Summary price: $4.95

What do you understand about child development? You can download a sample set of questions from our benchmark survey to see how your answers compare to those of our experts.

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