CHILDREN

Are children smarter today than they were 20 years prior?

Are children smarter today than they were 20 years prior?

Introduction

It has been suggested that today's children are not as healthy or well-adjusted as previous generations of children. While broad societal trends, such as the rise in life expectancy, increased educational attainment, and higher financial and material living standards, suggest that adults are faring better nowadays than in the past, concern has been expressed about the progress of our children (e.g., Stanley, Richardson, & Prior, 2005).

Discussion

Several problematic trends are evident— for example, the rise in obesity (World Health Organization, 2004), lower levels of fitness and greater inactivity (Dollman, Olds, Norton, & Stuart, 1999), and increasing rates of depression among youth (Birmaher et al., 1996). What might underlie these trends? Family life is perceived to be “busier” than in the past (Bianchi, Robinson, & Milkie, 2006; Darrah, Freeman, & English-Lueck, 2007). There have been changes in family circumstances, such as the tendency for parenthood to commence at an older age, the trend for more mothers of young children to return to work, and a rise in single parenthood.

A variety of lifestyle changes have contributed to a more sedentary lifestyle—for example, parents acting as “taxi drivers” for their children, “couch potato” interests such as DVD/television watching and home computers, and heightened “stranger danger” fears. There have been changes in children's early experiences as well, with many more experiencing nonparental care outside the family home than in the 70s and 80s. Concern is sometimes expressed about the effects of this trend (Belsky, 2001; Biddulph, 2006). Today's world is also a more uncertain place following the 9/11 attacks, the threat of terrorism and the new uncertainties surrounding climate change.

These external stresses have been shown to affect parents' childrearing practices and may flow on to affect children's wellbeing (Mowder, Guttman, Robinson, & Sossin, 2006). There is also considerable research suggesting that greater societal inequality is linked to lower overall child wellbeing (Keating & Hertzman, 1999). Thus, it is possible that the pressures of our modern world are a source of additional stress for families and children. But while some broad indicators suggest that today's children are not progressing as well as children in previous generations, few opportunities exist to directly compare children growing up in differing eras.

Two ongoing longitudinal studies, the Temperament Project (ATP) and Growing Up in the Longitudinal Study of Children (LSAC), contain parallel data on children's temperament and behaviour problems, enabling a comparison of children born 20 years apart. The ATP is following a cohort of children aged 4-8 months at the first data collection (born in 1982-83), while the LSAC is following two cohorts, the first aged 0 to 1 years at first collection (born in 2003-04), and the second aged 4-5 years at first collection (born in 1999-2000).

The ATP cohort was previously compared with the two LSAC cohorts at child ages of 0-1 and 4-5 years, using data from the first wave of the LSAC and the first and ...