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Racial and Ethnic Inequality in the Duration of Children's Exposure to Neighborhood Poverty and Affluence
Abstract and Figures
Despite much scholarly attention to "neighborhood effects" on children, no study to date has measured the cumulative exposure of children to neighborhood poverty and affluence. In this article, I estimate racial and ethnic inequality in the amount of time children can expect to live in poor and nonpoor neighborhoods throughout childhood. At rates prevailing in the early- to mid-1990s, the average black child can expect to spend about 50 percent of her first 18 years in neighborhoods with poverty rates in excess of 20 percent. The corresponding figures for Latino and white children are about 40 percent and 5 percent, respectively. I find that black/white differences in childhood exposure to neighborhood poverty are largely accounted for by differences in the probability of being born into a poor neighborhood, and to a lesser degree by differences in rates of upward and downward neighborhood mobility during childhood. Finally, cross-period analyses indicate that white children's share of childhood in the most affluent neighborhood type increased steadily beginning in the late 1980s and that black children's exposure to the poorest neighborhood type increased rapidly in the mid-1980s and then declined sharply throughout the first half of the 1990s.
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... One study suggests that point in time measurement is a reasonable proxy for duration weighted measurement (Kunz et al. 2003). Most studies (Kravitz-Wirtz 2016a, b; Wodtke 2013), however, document significant variation in youth exposure to neighborhood disadvantage over time (e.g., Timberlake 2007;Quillian 2003), and report that incorporating variation in exposure significantly improves prediction and explanation of self-rated health, smoking initiation, sex risk behavior, health inequalities, high school graduation, reading and math test scores, and adolescent parenting (Carlson et al. 2022;Hicks et al. 2018;Jackson and Mare 2007;Quillian 2003;Timberlake 2007;Wodtke et al. 2011). Although the aforementioned studies indicate support for duration weighted measurement of neighborhood disadvantage, there is very limited research that includes criminological outcomes. ...
... One study suggests that point in time measurement is a reasonable proxy for duration weighted measurement (Kunz et al. 2003). Most studies (Kravitz-Wirtz 2016a, b; Wodtke 2013), however, document significant variation in youth exposure to neighborhood disadvantage over time (e.g., Timberlake 2007;Quillian 2003), and report that incorporating variation in exposure significantly improves prediction and explanation of self-rated health, smoking initiation, sex risk behavior, health inequalities, high school graduation, reading and math test scores, and adolescent parenting (Carlson et al. 2022;Hicks et al. 2018;Jackson and Mare 2007;Quillian 2003;Timberlake 2007;Wodtke et al. 2011). Although the aforementioned studies indicate support for duration weighted measurement of neighborhood disadvantage, there is very limited research that includes criminological outcomes. ...
... Sharkey (2014) further points out that in the context of Wilson (1987) and Massey and Denton's (1993) literature defining work, duration of exposure to disadvantaged residential environments is a critical dimension, yet that component is rarely addressed in most research. Due in part to discriminatory housing practices and residential segregation, African American, Multiracial, and Hispanic youth are more likely than Whites (and Asians) to experience generational exposure to concentrated neighborhood disadvantage (Lichter et al. 2016;Sharkey 2013;Timberlake 2007). Because a duration-weighted neighborhood disadvantage index captures adolescents that may have spent their entire lives exposed to the extremes of concentrated disadvantage, it is likely to yield better explanation of ethnoracial disparities. ...
Purpose
Two important issues constrain the neighborhood effects literature. First, most prior research examining neighborhood effects on aggression and self-reported violence uses a point in time (i.e., cross-sectional) estimate of neighborhood disadvantage even though the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage varies between families. Second, neighborhood effects may be understated due to over-controlling for family socioeconomic conditions. Both limitations suggest that prior research may be underestimating neighborhood effects, which impacts research on the invariance thesis and explanation of ethnoracial differences.
Methods
The sample is drawn from the restricted use Future of Families and Child Well-being study. Data to measure youth’s exposure to neighborhood disadvantage is drawn from birth through age 9, with dependent variables measured at age 15. We estimate marginal structural models (MSM) with inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW.
Results
The results support hypotheses, indicating that the duration weighted measure of neighborhood disadvantage is more strongly associated with aggression and self-reported violence than the point in time, and that it accounts for a larger share of the ethnoracial differences.
Conclusions
The findings provide a clear image of the consequences of long-term exposure to neighborhood disadvantage for aggression and violence. They suggest that criminologists addressing neighborhood effects should attempt, when feasible, to document and model the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage. They are also consistent with and add to a growing literature addressing MSM modeling with IPTW weights.
... While capturing a temporal dimension largely overlooked in early neighborhood research (i.e., duration of exposure) [4], such summary measures may mask dynamic heterogeneity in the sequence and timing of exposure to residential environments between subgroups. Timberlake (2007) uses period life tables to predict transitions into neighborhood poverty during childhood, showing important change over time in Black and white children's predicted exposure to neighborhood poverty (or affluence) at different stages of childhood and between periods [57]. This study relies on data prior to 1997, however, after which broader sociodemographic change has occurred, and it focuses on the individual's predicted duration of time in neighborhood poverty rather than focusing on identifying the trajectories of neighborhood poverty themselves. ...
... Past work on this topic often takes analytic approaches such as period life tables, logistic regression, or transition matrices [8,10,57]. Often, these studies employ growth curve models (South et al. 2016), which are effective for empirically describing individual-level variability in trajectories of exposure to high-poverty neighborhoods over time, but are limited in that they allow the residuals to vary around the estimate for a single trajectory. By estimating mean trends, these methods assume that all individuals in the population follow a similar functional form in their residential pathways-i.e., one trajectory shape that is assumed to "fit all" (Nagin and Odgers 2013:115)-thereby potentially overlooking important within-group differences [60]. ...
... We perform a prevalence GBT model, which uses the logit link function and relies on a binary outcome for neighborhood poverty for each sample member and at each time point (in our analysis, we draw on data from 1991 to 2018, but use an individual's age as our time variable). To do this, we construct a dichotomous measure of high-poverty neighborhoods denoting whether the poverty rate of a sample member's residential neighborhood is above 20 percent, following past work [36,57]. ...
Prior research has established the greater exposure of African Americans from all income groups to disadvantaged environments compared to whites, but the traditional focus in studies of neighborhood stratification obscures heterogeneity within racial/ethnic groups in residential attainment over time. Also obscured are the moderating influences of broader social changes on the life-course and the experiences of Latinos, a large and growing presence in American cities. We address these issues by examining group-based trajectory models of residential neighborhood disadvantage among white, Black, and Latino individuals in a multi-cohort longitudinal research design of over 1,000 children from Chicago as they transitioned to adulthood over the last quarter century. We find considerable temporal consistency among white individuals compared to dynamic heterogeneity among nonwhite individuals in exposure to residential disadvantage, especially Black individuals and those born in the 1980s compared to the 1990s. Racial and cohort differences are not accounted for by early-life characteristics that predict long-term attainment. Inequalities by race in trajectories of neighborhood disadvantage are thus at once more stable and more dynamic than previous research suggests, and they are modified by broader social changes. These findings offer insights on the changing pathways by which neighborhood racial inequality is produced.
... These people frequently oscillate between cash assistance receipt and low-wage employment throughout their lives. Most researchers that explore the social characteristics of these households have focused mainly on demographic information such as education (Acs & Zimmerman, 2009;Grieger & Danziger, 2011;Neblett, 2007;), race (Acs & Zimmerman, 2009;Grieger & Wyse, 2013;Sandoval, Rank, & Hirschl, 2009;Sharkey, 2008;Timberlake, 2007), gender (Acs & Zimmerman, 2009;Grodner et al., 2007;Sandoval et al., 2009), and their relationship with employment, cash assistance receipt, and other socioeconomic outcomes. However, only two scholars within this literature have included even a limited reference to some type of disability in their analysis (Acs & Zimmerman, 2009;Neblett, 2007). ...
... As a result, they experience much higher rates of unemployment compared to any other racial and ethnic group in the United States (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). African Americans are also more likely to experience chronic poverty (Greiger & Wyse, 2013;Sharkey, 2008;Timberlake, 2007) and be recipients of long-term cash assistance as a result of their socioeconomic disadvantage (Greiger & Danziger, 2011;Neubeck & Cazenave, 2001;Soss et al., 2011). However, we note that financial hardship and income is higher for Hispanics overall. ...
... The resulting triple inequality (Andersson & Kährik, 2016) puts these youngsters at risk of getting trapped in a vicious circle of segregation (Tammaru et al., 2021). In line with neighbourhood-based social capital theory (Jencks & Mayer, 1990) but differentiating residents by ethnic background, fewer adult role models, restricted peer networks or perceived stigmatisation then may cause neighbourhood effects to be much more decisive for educational failure/success among migrant descendants compared to natives (Crowder & South, 2011;Galster et al., 2022;Timberlake, 2007). Extrafamilial group-level effects for migrants' educational attainment are discussed in more detail by Luthra and Soehl (2015), but they argue that social networks may be tighter for migrants than for non-migrants. ...
Research has made significant contributions to our understanding of ethnic disparities in educational attainment, revealing amongst others the importance of parental and residential characteristics. Mixed empirical results, however, challenge the interpretation of why some ethnic groups face more difficulties in educational success than others, upholding contextual effects as a contested and inconclusive topic. This case study scrutinises the contextual underpinnings of ethnic diversity in the educational attainment of adolescents from various ethnic populations in Belgium's largest cities. Using full population individual‐level longitudinal census data (1991–2001), stratified multilevel ordinal models focus on the heterogeneous role of household characteristics – parental education and household composition – and neighbourhood characteristics – ethnic density, coethnic representation and deprivation – in young native and ethnic minority populations. While this Belgian case study shows that parental education and residential environment contribute to educational outcomes of all young adults in similar ways, it also points at two ethnic‐specific dynamics. First, contextual socioeconomic advantages are accumulated to a greater extent among native adolescents. Second, coethnic residential concentration shows a positive association with educational attainment for native and European‐origin children only. This paper reveals how the spatial separation of ethnic communities fosters differential opportunities for educational success, in particular for the most segregated population groups. If we want to better understand the complexities of native‐origin and minority youth embarking on differential educational trajectories, our study echoes the need for considering various sociospatial contexts in which people of different ethnic communities interact.
... These results suggest that differences in the parenting styles of more and less advantaged parents might owe more to the difficult and unforgiving circumstances facing disadvantaged children than to differences in parent's knowledge or capabilities. Racism and poverty greatly increase the likelihood that a child will make a mistake that results in serious harm, both due to greater exposure to crime (Manduca & Sampson, 2019;Timberlake, 2007) and due to harsher and more punitive enforcement of rules (Anderson et al., 2015;Fryer, 2019;Skiba et al., 2000). If parents adopt disciplinarian parenting styles in order to protect their children from these realities, interventions in families are likely to be of limited effectiveness if not paired with changes in environmental risks. ...
This paper hypothesizes that disadvantaged parents use more and harsher discipline in part as a rational response to parenting in more dangerous and less forgiving environments. I model parent-child interactions in which altruistic parents modify the behavior of short-sighted children by investing in children's self-control and by punishing misbehavior. In the model, parents choose to devote more resources to punishment when children's misbehavior has more serious long-term consequences. I present empirical evidence in support of this hypothesis by examining the relationship between school safety and parental discipline, finding that parents use harsher discipline when their children attend more dangerous and disorderly schools, even after accounting for neighborhood fixed-effects and a rich set of parent-level controls. Because parents are not directly exposed to their child's school environment, school safety is most likely to influence parents by shaping their concerns about their children's safety, rather than by affecting their stress, mental reserves, or knowledge about effective parenting strategies.
... These findings are consistent with the scenario that nonwhite children, particularly black children, get locked into structural forces that generate systematic dynamics, such as disinvestment and disorder, that in turn may contribute to further disadvantages in health and wellbeing over the life course. Our findings resonate with the large volume of studies that underscore the persistent racial inequalities in neighborhood conditions (Pais et al. 2014;Sampson 2009;South and Crowder, 1997;Swisher et al. 2013;Timberlake 2007). ...
This study uses data from the longitudinal Panel Study of Income Dynamics data and its Transition to Adulthood (TA) Study (2005–2017), in conjunction with decades of neighborhood-level data from the U.S. decennial census and American Community Survey, to examine the relationship between individuals’ neighborhood poverty exposure trajectories in childhood and the likelihood of obesity in emerging adulthood. Latent growth mixture models reveal that exposure to neighborhood poverty differs considerably for white and nonwhite individuals over their childhood life course. Durable exposure to neighborhood poverty confers greater subsequent obesity risks in emerging adulthood than transitory experiences of neighborhood poverty. Racial differences in the changing and persistent trajectories of neighborhood poverty help explain part of the racial differences in obesity risks. Among nonwhites, and compared to consistent nonpoor neighborhood conditions, both durable and transitory neighborhood poverty exposures are significantly associated with higher obesity risks. This study suggests that a theoretical framework that integrates key elements of the life-course perspective is helpful to uncover the individual and structural pathways through which neighborhood histories in poverty shape population health in general.
... While high-income families are more likely to move to higher-income neighbourhoods, socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals as well as nonwhite groups, particularly African Americans, face structural barriers and are less likely to move into more affluent neighbourhoods (South et al., 2005), suggesting that an important share of residential stability is related to mobility constraints rather than residential satisfaction (Coulton et al., 2012). Moreover, disadvantages among individuals staying in the same neighbourhoods may increase when wealthier residents move away (Sampson & Sharkey, 2008) and evidence further indicates that the cumulative burden of neighbourhood poverty is primarily driven by persistent neighbourhood poverty from birth rather than residential mobility (Timberlake, 2007) and parents' tenure in poor neighbourhoods are positively related to exposure to poor neighbourhoods (Li et al., 2019 structural educational opportunity, which refers to the proportion of 12th graders enroled in an academic or college preparatory programme as an IV. The costs of nonnormative transitions such as teenage childbearing might be lower when educational opportunities are low. ...
This study maps early adulthood family life courses from ages 15 to 28 and tests whether they are causally linked to neighbourhood conditions with an instrumental strategy in the United States using Add Health data. Results show that the risk of sorting into pathways typified by early childbearing regardless of relationship status was higher in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The instrumental variable strategy further showed that pathways characterized by single parenthood and early marriage with multiple children increased significantly with neighbourhood disadvantage, whereas other significant associations disappeared in these analyses. Overall, the results highlight the importance of considering multiple family events as a process outcome to understand the impact of neighbourhood conditions. Indeed, neighbourhood deprivation may lead to life courses associated with nonconventional outcomes. While some of the observed neighbourhood effects may be driven by selection bias in the United States, not all effects are necessarily due to selection and depend on the longitudinal family trajectories. These results were supported by several robustness tests, including the use of an alternative instrumental variable, as the main models suggested weak identification.
Although racial disparities in criminal justice contact are long‐standing and the subject of continuing public debate, few studies have linked early‐life social conditions to racial disparities in arrest over the life course and in changing times. In this article, we advance and test a theoretical model of racial inequality in long‐term arrest histories on a representative sample of nearly 1,000 individuals from multiple birth cohorts in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Large Black–White disparities in arrests from ages 10 to 40 arise from racial inequalities in exposure to cumulative childhood advantages and disadvantages rather than from race‐specific effects. Smaller but meaningful Hispanic–White gaps follow a similar pattern, and the same explanations of racial disparities hold across different offense types and across birth cohorts who came of age at different times during 1995 to 2021. These findings indicate that inequalities in early‐life structural factors, which themselves are historically shaped, trigger processes of cumulative advantage and disadvantage that produce racial disparities in arrests over the life course and that persist across different points in contemporary history.
We investigate how recent changes in the Western family have affected childhood living arrangements. For 17 developed countries, we use multistate life table techniques to estimate childhood trajectories of coresidence with biological fathers versus other maternal partners. In all countries childhood exposure to single parenting is more often caused by parental separation than out-of-partnership childbearing. Both exposure to single parenting and expectancy of childhood spent with a single non-cohabiting mother vary widely across countries, with the United States exhibiting the highest levels of each at early 1990s rates. The greatest international variations concern parental cohabitation-its prevalence, durability, and the degree to which its increase has compensated for a decrease in the expectancy of childhood spent with married parents. Overall, we find little evidence of international convergence in childrearing arrangements, except that in countries where parental marriage has declined over time, childrearing has predominantly shifted to single mothers.
"The Truly Disadvantagedshould spur critical thinking in many quarters about the causes and possible remedies for inner city poverty. As policy makers grapple with the problems of an enlarged underclass they—as well as community leaders and all concerned Americans of all races—would be advised to examine Mr. Wilson's incisive analysis."—Robert Greenstein,New York Times Book Review "'Must reading' for civil-rights leaders, leaders of advocacy organizations for the poor, and for elected officials in our major urban centers."—Bernard C. Watson,Journal of Negro Education "Required reading for anyone, presidential candidate or private citizen, who really wants to address the growing plight of the black urban underclass."—David J. Garrow,Washington Post Book World Selected by the editors of theNew York Times Book Reviewas one of the sixteen best books of 1987. Winner of the 1988 C. Wright Mills Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.
Objective. Our research examines how urban residents define "neighborhood" and whether their definitions influence their answers to other survey questions. Methods. We use data from a 1988 Nashville, Tennessee, study to tap respondents' abstract neighborhood definitions as well as the symbolic and physical identities they attribute to their own neighborhoods. Results. Territorial meanings predominate among respondents when neighborhood is considered in the abstract, although few definitions are exclusively territorial in nature. At a more concrete level, individuals living near one another often give the same name for their neighborhood of residence but differ markedly in their reports of the area's physical size and complexity. Such differences do not have much impact on answers to vague-referent questions about neighborhood life (i.e., questions in which the concept of neighborhood is left undefined). Conclusions. The fact that at least some survey results appear relatively insensitive to respondents' definitional idiosyncrasies should reassure practitioners. We nevertheless recommend that a few items be included in survey instruments to help clarify people's understanding of neighborhood and other "quasi-factual" geographic concepts.