Voices of Child Health in Chicago Search Results

Showing results 1 - 16 of 48
  • Adolescents Report on Their Well-Being and Mental Health

    Social-emotional well-being in adolescence is associated with health across the life course; it plays an important role in development and predicts academic performance and mental health outcomes later in life. Social-emotional well-being has many layers, including individual components such as stress and happiness, as well as interpersonal...
  • How Chicago Parents Are Helping Their Children Maintain a Healthy Weight

    February was American Heart Month and March is National Nutrition Month, a time when all people are encouraged to focus on their cardiovascular health, nutrition and lifestyle habits. Heart disease is the most prevalent cause of death among adults in the United States, and research shows childhood health factors are associated with later cardiac...
  • Most Illinois Parents Do Not Ask About Firearms in the Home

    Dangers that firearms in the home present for children are more prominent than ever. Forty percent of U.S. households with children have firearms in the home , and Healthy Children reports an estimated 4.6 million kids live with unlocked, loaded firearms in the home . Having firearms in the home increases the risk of unintentional shootings,...
  • Top 10 Child Health Concerns

    Children and adolescents in Chicago face various challenges that can impact their physical and mental health and their social well-being. To understand which of these challenges adults consider most concerning for youth health, we teamed up with the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) again on the 2022 Healthy Chicago Survey Jr. As we have...
  • Availability of Community Resources for Chicago Parents

    Community resources such as healthcare clinics, parks and libraries can help people live healthier lives and access beneficial services. However, access to resources and services is something that many families struggle with in their local communities, and sometimes it can be hard to find information about what resources are available for...
  • Chicago Families and Safe Swimming in Lake Michigan

    As the weather becomes warmer in Chicago, families spend more time outside and many take the opportunity to swim. Lake Michigan is a treasured natural resource that provides Chicago families with water recreation activities such as beach days, swimming, boating and sailing. However, enjoying the lake comes with a need to attend to water safety...
  • Parents’ and Children’s Concern About Mass Shootings

    Mass shootings have been a public health crisis for many years, increasing in frequency steadily since 1966. These events are defined as shootings that occur in a short time span (minutes to hours), in a public space, and include four or more victims. The increase in mass shootings over the last several decades has prompted preparatory actions...
  • Unsafe Car Seat Practices in Chicago

    Car crashes remain a leading cause of death and severe injury for children 1 to 10 years old in the United States. Each year about 600 U.S. children in this age range die in car crashes, more than the number who die from homicide, suicide, heart disease, sepsis or influenza/ pneumonia. Thousands more are treated in emergency departments for...
  • Gun Violence Exposure and Mental Health Impact Among Chicago Youth

    Exposure to gun violence has many negative effects on the health of youth. A policy brief from the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium reported that youth exposure to gun violence is consistently associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other internalizing symptoms, such as anxiety and depression. The National Alliance...
  • Chicago Children Are Not Getting Enough Physical Activity

    Spending time outside and exercising may be top of mind for many Chicago families trying to soak up the last few weeks of summer sunshine and warm weather. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) emphasizes a variety of benefits to exercising and active play, as regular physical activity can help children and adolescents improve cardiorespiratory...
  • Chicago Parents Are Still Dealing with Stress From the Ongoing Pandemic

    During the past two years, Chicago parents and families have faced new challenges and heightened levels of unpredictability due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America Survey of March 2021, 1 nearly half of parents (48%) said the level of stress in their life has increased compared with...
  • Parental Concerns about Climate Change

    As Earth Day approaches on April 22, our April 2022 Voices of Child Health in Chicago report provides insight into Chicago parents’ concerns about climate change. Chicago experiences climate-related weather events as well as rising water levels, which have the potential to affect more than 1 million children living in the city. According to the...
  • Update on Youth COVID-19 Vaccines in Chicago

    Public opinion about COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States is constantly changing, with experts relying on vaccines as the main line of defense against the ongoing pandemic. According to the City of Chicago’s COVID-19 Dashboard, as of February 2022, 69% of the population had completed the vaccine series. In Chicago, 41% of children 5–11...
  • Infant Sleep Practices

    Sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) is the term used to describe the death of an infant who is less than 1 year old in which the cause of death was not obvious before investigation. SUID often occurs in the baby’s sleep area and includes sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The most current data (2014–18) reveal that 42% of infant deaths are...
  • Continuing Pandemic and Worsening Stress: Behavioral Health for Chicago’s Children

    As we approach the end of 2021, the second calendar year that the nation and world have grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to check in on the status of youth mental health in Chicago to provide an update to our March 2021 Voices of Child Health in Chicago report . Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, one in five U.S. children...
  • Top 10 Social Concerns for Youth 2020

    Chicago youth have dealt with ongoing social challenges that have continued to shape their daily interactions and experiences over the past 20 months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn what social issues Chicago adults were most concerned about for youth in the city, we teamed up with the Chicago Department of Public Health...