Statistics tell parents that the world is not so dangerous for their children
By Eric Adler and Emily Van Zandt
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
"Concussions. Football. It's going to happen in the junior-high age group and high school ...
"We'll see cheerleaders with head injuries and knee injuries," he continued.
"Gunshot wounds. Sporadic. ... Probably see more than we used to. Worst are the drive-bys. The child is an unintentional victim."
For the sweet life of Zack and Cody, who can blame adults for being scared?
"Now, it's car accidents, what I'm doing with friends, where I'm going."
As art teachers have said, it's time for perspective.
Despite the trepidation that naturally arises when releasing our kids into the big, bad world, statistics show that for the vast majority of American young people, their world is not as dangerous as it is so often made out.
Tragedies — car crashes, serious sports injuries, childhood suicide, water accidents, to name a few — touch thousands of families every year. There is no diminishing that hurt.
But for most people, in most situations, the odds are good that all will be fine.
Motor vehicle accidents, for example, sadly killed 13,000 youths in 2006. They're the No. 1 killer of young people ages 1 to 24.
Child abduction by a stranger, perhaps a parent's worst fear?
The odds are about 1.5 in a million.
"We live in a nation where dramatic things capture our attention" Fass said of our fears about children. "They are sensationalized by the media and by our imaginations.
"But if you look at the statistics," on whole, "our children are safe."
Today, as kids prepare for a new school year, we offer a course in caution. And maybe a few surprises amid a lot of statistics about what trips up our kids, like ...
Stairs, ramps and floors — which send two times as many kids to the emergency room each year as soccer injuries. Trampolines toss twice as many kids there as does ice hockey.
Still nervous? Read on.
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A driving fear — cars: For most, putting a child in a car is the most death-defying act we perform every day.
Census figures show about 100 million people ages 1 to 24 in the U.S. Breaking down the age groups used by the CDC for 2006 (the most recent statistical year), it offers a reality — although worrisome — that might become more manageable.
—Age 1-4: 471 auto deaths in a population of about 17 million.
—5-9: 515 in 20 million.
—10-14: 704 in 20 million.
—15-24: 10,800 in 43 million, a terrible number, to be sure.
But of those 100 million, 99.987 million did not die in a car accident.
Buckle up and don't speed, said Kelly at Children's Mercy. The biggest problem is teenagers who feel invincible, he said. They tote friends around who don't buckle up.
"They believe they can beat the odds," Kelly said.
Often they can, if they take precautions.
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Homicide and suicide: No different here. Their ranks as causes of death would likely scare any parent. But keep the raw numbers and odds in mind.
—For ages 1 to 9, homicide ranks as the No. 4 cause of death (515 out of 37 million).
—From 10 to 14, suicide is No. 4 (216 out of 20 million), while homicide is No. 3 (241 out of 20 million)
—From 15 to 24, suicide rises to third (4,189 out of 43 million), while homicide rises to No. 2 (5,717 out of 43 million), below car wrecks.
Still, even combining the top three horrors, it could be calming to realize that better than 99.95 percent of all young people escaped those fates in 2006.
Of those, it found that about 90 to 115 children fit the criteria for "stereotypical kidnapping," in which a stranger abducts a child for ransom or harm.
The rest are runaways, kids accidentally lost for a few hours or "toss-aways," meaning they're often teens who have left home on their own. About 7 percent were abducted by family members for short periods, often in custody wrangles.
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Wear a helmet ... in bed: What kinds of things are injuring our children?
Included are estimates on sports injuries from baseball, basketball, football, soccer, boxing and horseback riding because of equipment use.
The 2007 data cover other things, too — such as wounds related to TVs, which kids yank on top of their heads. Or doors. We break our toes. Or power tools. Stairs, windows, fences, washers, dryers, beach equipment and glass jars are all in there.
The numbers make sense — more of us pass through doorways than play soccer — but say nothing of the injuries' severity.
Falling off a bed (quarter million plus emergency room visits) doesn't generally mean a severe head injury, whereas flying off an all-terrain vehicle (161,000 injuries) often does. You might think trampolines would prompt more hospital visits than, maybe, clothes. Nope: Clothes, 92,484; tramps, 86,154. And Mommy's office is not more injury-free than the neighborhood pool.
The raw emergency room numbers for ages 0 to 24 can give one pause.
1. Stairs and such: 686,251
2. Football: 408,621
3. Basketball: 402,135
4. Bicycles: 340,810
5. Beds and pillows: 260,493
6. Doors, including glass: 258,147
7. Chairs, sofa, sofa beds: 218,426
8. Playground equipment: 210,243
9. Baseball, softball: 194,620
10. Various tables: 187,683
11. All toys: 186,542
12. Soccer: 164,167
13. ATVs, mopeds, minibikes: 161,453
14. Skateboards: 129,059
15. Desks, cabinets: 123,726
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The score on sports: You worry about signing the permission slip. You think your child is going to get killed or crippled out there on the football or soccer field.
Monumentally unlikely, studies show. Which isn't to minimize the risk. Even with good conditioning, sports can get rough.
Top of the head-whacking activities for tykes to adults: cycling at 70,800; football at 40,825; basketball at 27,583; baseball at 26,964.
The leading cause of catastrophic injury for young female athletes?
Among boys, football wins for the worst, no contest: 635 catastrophic injuries in high school, with 281 deaths. In college, it's 182 and 51.
Remember, that's over 26 years. The real score: Millions of children walk off courts and playing fields every year with barely a scratch.
Half of what sends them to the hospital is moderate sprains and strains.
Across most sports, even seemingly dangerous ones, concussions are uncommon. A 2007 study of 16 years of injuries in men's and women's college sports found:
—For males: Concussions made up 3.3 percent of baseball injuries; 9 percent in hockey; football, 6.8; lacrosse, 8.6; soccer, 5.8; basketball, 3.6; wrestling, 4.8.
—For females: Worst was the newer sport of women's ice hockey — a disconcerting 21.6 percent of all injuries. Basketball was at 6.5 percent; soccer, 8.6; softball, 6.0; field hockey, 9.4; gymnastic, 2.6; lacrosse, 9.8; volleyball, 4.7.
"I never thought about quitting because I might get hurt," she said. "If it happens again, it happens. That's just part of it."
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The other "S" word: Lots of teens are having sex.
Rates of sexually transmitted diseases are rising. Casual "hooking up" is common. Fewer girls report using birth control, 16 percent in 2007 compared with 21 percent in 1991.
But the hopeful news is in the decreasing numbers in nearly every area.
In 1991, 54 percent of high schoolers said they had sex at least once, six points higher than today.
Likewise, 18 years ago, nearly two in five reported sex with at least four partners; 37.5 percent called themselves "sexually active." In 2007, that was 15 percent and 35 percent, respectively.
More boys are using condoms: 62 percent in 2007 compared with 46 percent in 1991.
Between 15 and 19, birth rates dropped from 60 per 1,000 young women to about 42.
Abortion rates are down from 43 per 1,000 in the 1980s to just over 20.