Source: USA Today
Pubdate: 9 Dec 1997
Section: Life; Page 1D
Author: Eileen Smith
Contact: DRUGS TOP ADULT FEARS FOR KIDS' WELLBEING

Americans believe drug abuse  more than crime or the breakdown of home
life  is the biggest danger facing children, says a new study that
measures concerns for the nation's youth.

Worries about children living in poverty or lacking health care are
"nonexistent," the director of the study says.

The survey of 1,501 adults, conducted by Harvard's School of Public Health
and the University of Maryland Survey Research Center, found both
similarities and dramatic differences between this survey and a Harris poll
in 1986.

Fears about drug abuse led both polls, worrying 56% of adults in 1997 and
52% in 1986.

But the 1986 poll found 28% of American adults, both parents and
nonparents, citing physical and sexual abuse of children as a primary
concern. This time, less than 2% of adults said they believe such abuse is
a major threat.

The poll is not only a reflection of attitudes but a bellwether of the
political climate, says Robert Blendon, director of the study and a Harvard
professor.

He says people care about what affects their families directly, rather than
what influences society as a whole.

"The socialcondition view  that poverty and health care are important
issues for children  doesn't exist here," Blendon says.

In other findings from the survey, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation:

  Cited by 26%, fear of crime has grown so pervasive that it has
outdistanced the breakdown of home life as a concern. While 46% of adults
thought an erosion of discipline and parenting threatened children in 1986,
only 22% worried about it in 1997.

  Concerns about the quality of education almost doubled, from 9% to 17%.
Yet pollsters had anticipated such concerns would rise even more.

"We expected education to be the No. 1 concern," Blendon says, "but it's
been overshadowed by people's fear of drugs and crime."

  Only 12% believe that children in the USA are less healthy than
youngsters in the world's 28 other industrialized nations. Actually, the
USA ranks 23rd in infant mortality, as well as 20th in life expectancy for
girls born today and 21st for newborn boys.

  Women are significantly more supportive of government social programs
than men. For example, 73% of women support community health clinics,
compared with 60% of men.

The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage poin