Abstract
Although researchers have consistently found that neighborhoods matter, relatively little is known about the processes through which neighborhood-level characteristics influence individual outcomes, and whether interventions targeting improving neighborhood characteristics will be beneficial for children. I examine whether relocating from high- to low-poverty neighborhoods affected low-income Black children’s exposure to promotive developmental experiences. Participating families voluntarily relocated from high-poverty, minority segregated, inner-city Chicago neighborhoods to mostly White, low-poverty, suburban and Chicago neighborhoods. Data come from retrospective qualitative interviews with 22 Gautreaux One families an average of 15 years after initial relocation, and from interviews with 43 Gautreaux Two families as they relocated into their new communities. I find that children primarily benefited from the institutional versus the social interaction resources in their new neighborhoods. Furthermore, suburban placement was key in facilitating children’s access to higher quality resources.
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Notes
The effects of residential mobility on children’s exposure to inhibiting developmental factors that would increase participation in crime are presented in a separate paper (Keels 2008).
Gautreaux participants were similar to the Chicago AFDC sample in their time on public assistance (more than seven years) and their marital status (about 45% never married and 10% currently married). However, Gautreaux participants were less likely to be high school dropouts (39% vs. 50%), tended to be older (median age 34 vs. 31), and had fewer children (mean 2.5 vs. 3.0). On the other hand, they were also more likely to be second-generation AFDC recipients (44% vs. 32%).
Current CHA residents are in many ways a very disadvantaged population (Popkin and Cunningham 2001). The majority are poor (annual income of less than $10,000) long-term public housing residents; 62% have been living in public housing for more than ten years. Current CHA residents also have low human capital resources (63% do not have a high school diploma, 32% report being employed, and only 13% have a driver’s license).
Likely movers were selected from the Leadership Council’s Transmittal List, which consists of families who have already located units and begun the inspection/moving process.
A handful of mothers were interviewed in a restaurant because either they did not want to conduct the interview in their home or we offered to meet at a restaurant as an additional incentive after they scheduled and canceled several prior appointments.
See Boyd et al. (2007) for a detailed discussion of why many Gautreaux Two families did not maintain residence in their initial relocation neighborhoods.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Greg J. Duncan, Kathryn Edin, and Ruby Mendenhall for their assistance with this manuscript. I also thank Gautreaux interviewees for trusting us with their stories. To ensure confidentially all names and places used in this manuscript are pseudonyms. Finally, I am grateful for financial support from the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Foundation for Child Development, and the Family and Child Well-being Research Network of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
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Keels, M. Neighborhood Effects Examined Through the Lens of Residential Mobility Programs. Am J Community Psychol 42, 235–250 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-008-9204-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-008-9204-x