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Why are residential and school moves associated with poor school performance?

Demography volume 36, pages 521–534 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Most research on residential mobility has documented a clear pattern: Residential and school moves are associated with poor academic performance. Explanations for this relationship, however, remain speculative. Some researchers argue that moving affects social relationships that are important to academic achievement. But the association between moving and school performance may be spurious; the negative correlation may be a function of other characteristics of people who move often. We offer several conceptual and analytical refinements to these ideas, allowing us to produce more precise tests than past researchers. Using longitudinal data, we find that differences in achievement between movers and nonmovers are partially a result of declines in social relationships experienced by students who move. Most of the negative effect of moving, however, is due to preexisting differences between the two groups.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, 300 Bricker Hall, 190 N. Oval Mall, 43210, Columbus, Ohio

    Shana Pribesh & Douglas B. Downey

Authors
  1. Shana Pribesh
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  2. Douglas B. Downey
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shana Pribesh.

Additional information

The authors’ contributions to this project are equal. We thank James W. Ainsworth-Darnell, Patricia Drentea, Mikaela Dufur, Laurie Krivo, Toby Parcel, Vincent Roscigno, Catherine Ross, and Maureen Tobin for helpful comments.

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Pribesh, S., Downey, D.B. Why are residential and school moves associated with poor school performance?. Demography 36, 521–534 (1999). https://doi.org/10.2307/2648088

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2648088

Keywords

  • Social Capital
  • School Performance
  • Residential Mobility
  • Educational Expectation
  • Educational Performance