Accentuating the Negative: The Mismatch Between Public Perception of Child Well-being and Official Statistics

This paper reports findings from a series of polls designed to ascertain how well the American public understands the circumstances, characteristics, and living conditions of American children. With few exceptions, the results suggest a large gap between the public’s perception of children and official statistics and highlight a second finding—primarily, where misperceptions exist the public tends to perceive children’s circumstances to be worse than they actually are.