The DIPOV Index as an indicator of "the state of the child" in various ecological settings is examined in a study based on extensive interviews with mothers or mother-surrogates of children aged 1 to 10. Several hundred households were sampled in two upstate New York counties with strongly contrasting DIPOV Indices. Developed as an instrument for measuring the quality of child life, the DIPOV Index consists of five variables related to an underlying dimension termed "disorganized poverty." These five are concerned with incidence of: (1) dependent children among families receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children, (2) children living in incomplete families, (3) premature births, (4) out-of-wedlock births, and (5) venereal disease among persons under twenty. In the major anlaysis of the study, a hierarchical multiple regression model was used to determine relationships between several DIPOV Indices and a large number of child and parent variables. Evaluation took the form of a distal-to-proximal ecological progression: from counties to Primary Sampling Units (sub-county areas), to neighborhoods and families. It was found that the DIPOV Index is related to many child and parental problems at the sub-county and family levels, but is not as broadly successful as a county-level indicator. (BF)