Kyle Crowder

Neighborhood distress and school dropout: the variable significance of community context

Abstract Although a substantial body of recent research has examined the impact of neighborhood socioeconomic distress on youth socioeconomic attainment and urban social dislocations, few studies have determined under what conditions, and for what types of adolescents, neighborhood characteristics matter most. Drawing on theories of collective socialization, social capital, and social control, we develop hypotheses regarding the conditional nature of neighborhood effects on the risk of dropping out of high school, and we then test these hypotheses by estimating event history models based on data from the 1968–1993 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We find that, among African Americans, the detrimental impact of neighborhood socioeconomic distress on school dropout has increased significantly over the past quarter-century, a probable repercussion of the increasing geographic concentration of urban poverty. The negative effect of neighborhood distress on high school completion is particularly pronounced among black adolescents from single-parent households and among white adolescents from low-income families, results broadly consistent with Wilson’s claim that exposure to neighborhood poverty reinforces the damaging consequences of individual disadvantage. Supporting the social capital perspective, among both black and white adolescents the deleterious impact of neighborhood distress on school dropout is stronger for recent in-movers than for long-term residents. The impact of neighborhood disadvantage also varies significantly by gender for both racial groups and, among whites, is stronger for younger than older adolescents. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for theories of neighborhood effects.

Neighborhood effects on family formation : Concentrated poverty and beyond

We use longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, in conjunction with decennial census data, to examine the impact of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage on young womens risk of premarital childbearing and the timing of their transition to first marriage. Discrete-time event-history models reveal that, among black women, neighborhood disadvantage has little impact on the risk of premarital childbearing, but has a significant nonlinear effect on the probability of marriage prior to first birth. Among white women, as neighborhood disadvantage increases, premarital childbearing rates rise nonlinearly, and marriage rates rise linearly. The nonlinear effects of neighborhood disadvantage on white womens premarital childbearing and black womens first prebirth marriage are generally consistent with arguments regarding the detrimental consequences of concentrated poverty, as opposed to merely high poverty. We find no evidence that the effects of individual socioeconomic status on these dimensions of family formation vary by neighborhood quality. And although white womens estimated rates of premarital childbearing may approach those of blacks in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods, socioeconomic differences between the neighborhoods inhabited by black women and white women explain only a modest proportion of the pronounced racial differences in premarital childbearing and the timing of first marriage.

Interneighborhood migration, race, and environmental hazards: modeling microlevel processes of environmental inequality.

This study combines longitudinal individual‐level data with neighborhood‐level industrial hazard data to examine the extent and sources of environmental inequality. Results indicate that profound racial and ethnic differences in proximity to industrial pollution persist when differences in individual education, household income, and other microlevel characteristics are controlled. Examination of underlying migration patterns further reveals that black and Latino householders move into neighborhoods with significantly higher hazard levels than do comparable whites and that racial differences in proximity to neighborhood pollution are maintained more by these disparate mobility destinations than by differential effects of pollution on the decision to move.

The Character and Consequences of Growth Regimes: An Assessment of 20 Years of Research

The authors review the empirical evidence on two key hypotheses derived from the model of the city as a growth machine. The first posits the pervasive influence of progrowth coalitions in local governing regimes. The second states that growth regimes make a difference to local development. The authors offer suggestions to strengthen research on both points, emphasizing the need to distinguish between policy and politics. They urge greater attention to an alternative hypothesis: that the main impacts of growth machines lie in their distributional outcomes—intensifying inequalities among places and displacing alternative goals of governance at the local level.

Exiting and Entering High-Poverty Neighborhoods: Latinos, Blacks and Anglos Compared

A special sample from the 1990-1995 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics is used to examine differences in the patterns and determinants of residential mobility between high-poverty and lower-poverty neighborhoods among Latinos, blacks and Anglos. Householders of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban origin are significantly less likely than Anglos to move from a high-poverty to a lower-poverty neighborhood, and these differences are only partially explained by ethnic differences in standard mobility determinants. Although African Americans are thought to face unique barriers to geographic mobility, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans are significantly less likely than non-Hispanic blacks to escape high-poverty neighborhoods. Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are significantly more likely than Anglos to move from a lower-poverty to a high-poverty neighborhood, but blacks exhibit by far the highest rates of moving into high-poverty neighborhoods.

Spatial Dynamics of White Flight: The Effects of Local and Extralocal Racial Conditions on Neighborhood Out-Migration

Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and three U.S. censuses, we examine how the composition of extralocal areas—areas surrounding a householders neighborhood of residence—shapes the likelihood that Whites will move out of their neighborhoods. Net of local neighborhood conditions and other predictors of residential mobility, high concentrations of minorities in surrounding neighborhoods reduce the likelihood that Whites will move, presumably by reducing the attractiveness of nearby residential alternatives. Notably, this effect also suppresses the influence of the racial composition of the immediate neighborhood on White out-migration. Recent growth in the size of an extralocal minority population increases the likelihood of White outmigration and accounts for much of the influence previously attributed to racial changes in the local neighborhood. High levels of minority concentration in surrounding neighborhoods also exacerbate the positive effect of local minority concentration on White out-migration. These results highlight the importance of looking beyond reactions to local racial conditions to understand mobility decisions and resulting patterns of segregation.

Race, Class, and Changing Patterns of Migration between Poor and Nonpoor Neighborhoods1

This study merges data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and four decennial censuses to analyze historical changes in the determinants of residential mobility between poor and nonpoor neighborhoods. Between 1970 and 1997, blacks and whites became increasingly similar in the rate at which they move between poor and nonpoor neighborhoods, but much of this racial convergence was driven by changes in the relative sociodemographic characteristics of white and black households and shifting ecological conditions of metropolitan areas. Furthermore, race remains a salient factor in determining the likelihood of exiting or entering poor neighborhoods, and there is little evidence of increasing class selectivity in this movement.

Wealth, Race, and Inter-Neighborhood Migration

Racial differences in wealth have often been thought to underlie racial differences in residential segregation and neighborhood attainment, but research supporting this claim is limited. The authors of this article use data from the 1989–2001 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), in conjunction with tract-level decennial census data, to examine the effects of household and parental wealth on the migration of black and non-Hispanic white families between neighborhoods comprised of varying percentages of Anglos (i.e., non-Hispanic whites). They find generally modest effects of wealth on these patterns of inter-neighborhood migration. Consistent with one version of the place-stratification model of locational attainment, the effects of both household and parental wealth are stronger among blacks than among non-Hispanic whites, with the sharpest racial difference emerging among renters. Racial differences in household and parental wealth, however, can account for only a trivial portion of the pronounced racial difference in migration into neighborhoods containing larger percentages of Anglo residents. The authors conclude that explanations for the racially stratified inter-neighborhood migration streams that underlie and reinforce black-Anglo residential segregation will need to look beyond the influence of wealth and other socioeconomic resources.

Racial Stratification in the Actuation of Mobility Expectations: Microlevel Impacts of Racially Restrictive Housing Markets

This research uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine racial differences in the ability to translate mobility expectations into a residential move. The results indicate that, despite similar mobility expectations, black householders are significantly less likely than white householders to translate their expectations into a residential move. Supporting the stratification perspective, this racial difference persists when a variety of individual and contextual characteristics are controlled. Furthermore, higher income appears to enhance the ability of white but not black householders to convert their mobility expectations into a move. Supplemental analyses suggest that this racial stratification does not reflect poorer planning on the part of blacks and that this racial disparity helps to explain existing racial differences in the ability to escape poor neighborhoods.

Neighborhood Immigration and Native Out-Migration

This study combines data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics with data from four censuses to examine the effects of foreign-born populations in the immediate and surrounding neighborhoods of residence on native-born black and white householders’ residential mobility decisions. We find that the likelihood of out-mobility for native householders is significantly and positively associated with the relative size of, and increases in, the immigrant population in a neighborhood. Consistent with theoretical arguments related to the distance dependence of mobility, large concentrations of immigrants in surrounding areas reduce native out-mobility, presumably by reducing the attractiveness of the most likely mobility destinations. A sizable share of local immigration effects can be explained by the mobility-related characteristics of native-born individuals living in immigrant-populated areas, but the racial composition of a neighborhood (for native whites) and local housing-market conditions (for native blacks) are also important mediating factors. We discuss the implications of these patterns for processes of neighborhood change and broader patterns of residential segregation.