In a flourishing society, every person would have strong foundations on which they could build a fulfilling life and determine their own path.
They would have full and equitable access to high-quality education, as well as to artistic and cultural assets; would be mentally, physically and spiritually well; would have the ability to develop strong relationships and to contribute to their community and would enjoy personal and family stability. Research across disciplines shows that, while everyone needs these opportunities throughout their lives, having them in the first eight years of life is particularly essential. Even so, society has not yet delivered on its fundamental promises of equity, abundant opportunity and universal dignity for every young child and all families.
Leaders committed to improving the lives of young children and their families have worked tirelessly on these issues for decades. By some measures, realizing the goal of flourishing childhood and family life seems within reach. However, other data show that much work remains.
In 2018, funding for the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was extended through fiscal year 2023.¹
More than 80 percent of center-based educators who care for and teach infants and toddlers earn less than $15 per hour.⁶
Depression and general anxiety disorders among children have increased dramatically over the past half-century.⁹
The amount of time that fathers spend with their children has tripled over the last 50 years, and the time that mothers spend with their children has also increased since the 1960s.¹⁰
Paying for child care continues to be problematic for many families.¹¹
The number of children whose parents lack secure employment has decreased since 2010.¹²
For most working people, the purchasing power of wages has been stagnant for the past 40 years.¹³
The multifaceted opportunities and challenges that these data points reflect will demand creative, cross-disciplinary action beyond the boundaries of what have traditionally been considered children’s issues. As the organizations, communities and individuals that aim to serve young children and their families work to continue progress and to address persistent gaps, they must stay aware of changes happening in the broader environment. Attending to the five domains below and to emerging issues within them will be critical to helping young children and their families flourish over the next decade.
» Health by the Numbers: Emerging technologies and new understandings of community-level health are reshaping how young children’s and families’ well-being are measured and supported.
» Learning in Flux: Social and economic uncertainty and new research into the importance of relationships are influencing approaches to early learning.
» The Autonomy Gaps: New notions about young children’s autonomy, along with increasing inequity, are creating cultural and generational tensions and are widening disparities among children’s access to free expression.
» Stretched Social Fabric: Shifting support structures and information sources are changing the ways in which increasingly diverse families navigate and access resources.
» Care at the Core: New economic and employment realities and the aging of the population are creating tensions related to caregiving structures and values.
These shifts are increasing the urgency of rethinking programs, practices, policies and systems and are even calling into question the underlying social values and cultural norms related to the support of young children and their families. Given how important the early years of life are for individual development and for our social fabric, we owe it to young children, their families and society to grapple proactively with change and to examine critically the opportunities and challenges that it presents.
Amid such change, timeless needs will remain. No matter what the future holds, children need love, support, stability and dignity. However, our collective ability to meet those needs fully and equitably will be hampered without urgent attention to the changing contexts in which young children and their families live. To work toward a society in which every young child and all families can flourish, we need to broaden our lines of inquiry, embrace complexity and take action with the future in mind.
