Experts: Gaming, transiency make LV tough for child-raising

Thursday, July 29, 1999 | 11:15 a.m.

Ellie Hicks isn't surprised that a national study says Nevada isn't one of the best places to raise a child, but she wouldn't call it one of the worst either.

"I would not call it the best because of the gambling," the North Las Vegas mother of three said. "But if you're away from The Strip like we are -- like in a suburb -- it's OK."

The study released earlier this week by the Children's Rights Council, a national advocacy group, says Nevada ranks 44th when it comes to being a good place to raise children.

Five New England states came out as the five best places to be a kid, with Maine ranking first. States in the West and Southwest took six of the eight bottom spots, and Washington, D.C. -- where the report originated -- came in last.

Nevada's teen pregnancy rate has long been the nation's highest or one of the highest. It also has nation's highest high school dropout rate, one of the highest teen suicide rates and is slightly below the national average when it comes to percent of children who have had all their childhood immunizations, experts and studies say.

Part of the reason could be that Nevada's population is concentrated in the Reno area or the Las Vegas Valley where lifestyles and jobs revolve around the gaming and service industries. They are entry-level jobs that typically attract a transient population, said Bob Parker, a UNLV associate professor of sociology who has studied the effects of the gaming industry on Nevada teens.

"There's a lack of community in Las Vegas that keeps them from being in safe places and being away from deviant behavior," Parker said. "People who come here on are the move. They're never in one place for very long. They find out it's not all they thought it was cracked up to be, and they're on their way."

Nevada's unemployment rate is low. Most people who want jobs can find them. But the pay is low, and it typically takes at least two incomes to cover the costs of raising a family, he said.

Parker recently completed a study of Las Vegas-area pay. He said about 70,000 people work at one of the three most popular jobs -- waitress, hotel maid and retail worker. Yet on average they earn less than $8 an hour.

It takes at least two of those jobs to provide a decent standard of living for a family, Parker said. Many families are forced to have two working parents, and he says he sees many single parents who are juggling college classes and work with raising children.

It's a lifestyle that can leave little time for the children.

"They come home exhausted," he said. "Children are socializing with each other because that's who's around."

Alice Costello, immunization supervisor for the Clark County Health District, said 76.5 percent of Nevada's 2-year-olds were current on their immunizations last year compared to 78 percent for the nation as a whole.

But that's a lot better than it was for Nevada toddlers about 18 months ago, when only 56 percent had all their shots, she said.

County health workers found economics and a lack of education was a large part of the problem, Costello said. Many parents didn't -- and still don't -- know that the shots are offered free from the county health department. Others lacked the transportation to get there.

Health workers expanded their outreach programs, and the number of kids with all their shots increased by 20 percent, Costello said. But it's still short of the department's 90 percent goal.

Access to such service through private health care professionals remains a problem, she said.

"We're short of pediatricians, family practitioners and internal medicine physicians."

The national advocacy group's report showed a strong regional trend in its findings. The five best states were in the Northeast and the worst states were in the West or Southwest.

The Northeast typically has a lower-than-national-average birth rate while the Southwestern states typically have the nation's highest birth rate, according to information from the Population Reference Bureau, in Washington, D.C.

The Southwest's states also typically have more sparse populations. So it makes sense to assume states with more children and fewer adults paying for them are going to be stretching resources, Parker said.

And Southwest states haven't been around as long to establish deeply rooted communities and traditions. The white European influence that has provided a foundation for the East for almost 300 years has been in the West for barely 100 in some places, the sociologist said.

"There's not the sense of history and tradition," Parker said. "There's not the kind of things to latch onto and hold onto."

That is something parents must take the time to provide, said Hicks, whose children are ages 5, 10 and 11. Parents can have a huge influence on improving Nevada's child-rearing status.

"You have to take care of your children and control where they go," the mother said. "You need to know where they are all the time." Analysis