We quantify how social detachment (measured as neither working nor attending school) of low-income African-American and Latino young adults relates to their teen neighborhood conditions. Data come from retrospective surveys of Denver Housing Authority (DHA) households. Because DHA household allocation mimics quasirandom assignment to neighborhoods throughout Denver County, this program represents a natural experiment for overcoming geographic selection bias. Our multilevel, mixed-effects logistic analyses found significant relationships between neighborhood safety and population composition and odds of social detachment of low-income, minority young adults that can be interpreted as causal effects. The strength of these relationships was often contingent on gender and ethnicity, however. We draw conclusions for macroeconomic, income-support, subsidized housing and community development policy.
AlonS.DonahoeD.TiendaM.2001. “The Effects of Early Work Experience on Young Women’s Labor Force Attachment.” Social Forces79:1005–34.
2.
AndersonE.1999. Code of the Street. New York: W.W. Norton.
3.
AnderssonR.MusterdS.GalsterG.KauppinenT.2007. “What Mix Matters? Exploring the Relationships Between Individuals’ Incomes and Different Measures of Their Neighborhood Context.” Housing Studies22 (5): 637–60.
4.
ÅslundO.FredrickssonP.2009. “Peer Effects in Welfare Dependence: Quasi-experimental Evidence.” Journal of Human Resources44 (3): 798–825.
5.
BarnichonR.FiguraA.2013. “Declining Labor Force Attachment and Downward Trends in Unemployment and Participation.” Finance and Economics Discussion Series Paper213-88, Divisions of Research & Statistics and Monetary Affairs, Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC.
6.
BayerP.RossS.TopaG.2008. “Place of Work and Place of Residence: Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes.” Journal of Political Economy116:1150–96.
7.
BolsterA.BurgessS.JohnstonR.JonesK.PropperC.SarkerR.2007. “Neighbourhoods, Households and Income Dynamics: A Semi-parametric Investigation of Neighbourhood Effects.” Journal of Economic Geography7:1–38.
8.
BriggsX.CoveE.DuarteC.TurnerM. A.2011. “How Does Leaving High-Poverty Neighborhoods Affect the Employment Prospects of Low-Income Mothers and Youth?” In Neighborhood and Life Chances: How Place Matters in Modern America, edited by NewburgerH.BirchE.WachterS., 179–203. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.
9.
BriggsX.FerrymanK.PopkinS.RendonM.2008. “Why Did the Moving to Opportunity Experiment Not Get Young People into Better Schools?” Housing Policy Debate19 (1): 53–91.
10.
BriggsX.PopkinS.GoeringJ.2010. Moving to Opportunity. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
11.
BuckN.2001. “Identifying Neighborhood Effects on Social Exclusion.” Urban Studies38:2251–75.
12.
Burdick-WillJ.LudwigJ.RaudenbushS.SampsonR.SanbonmatsuL.SharkeyP.2010. Converging Evidence for Neighborhood Effects on Children’s Test Scores: An Experimental, Quasi-experimental, and Observational Comparison. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
13.
CheahB.2009. “Clustering Standard Errors for Modeling Multilevel Data.” Working paper, Columbia Univ., https://sites.google.com/site/bancheah/ (accessed May 23, 2014).
14.
Clampet-LundquistS.EdinK.KlingJ.DuncanG.2011. “Moving At-Risk Youth Out of High-Risk Neighborhoods: Why Girls Fare Better than Boys.” American Journal of Sociology166:1154–89.
15.
Clampet-LundquistS.MasseyD.2008. “Neighborhood Effects on Economic Self-Sufficiency: A Reconsideration of the Moving to Opportunity Experiment.” American Journal of Sociology114:107–43.
16.
ColemanJ.1984. “The Transition from School to Work.” Research in Stratification and Mobility3:27–59.
17.
CoultonC.CramptonD.IrwinM.SpilsburyJ.KorbinJ.2007. “How Neighborhoods Influence Child Maltreatment: A Review of the Literature and Alternative Pathways.” Child Abuse and Neglect31:1117–42.
18.
CrowderK.SouthS. J.2011. “Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Neighborhood Effects on High School Graduation.” Social Science Research40:87–106.
19.
CutlerD.GlaeserE.VigdorJ.2008. “When Are Ghettos Bad? Lessons from Immigrant Segregation in the United States.” Journal of Urban Economics63:759–74.
20.
DanzigerS.RatnerD.2010. “Labor Market Outcomes and the Transition to Adulthood.” The Future of Children20:133–58.
21.
DawkinsC.ShenQ.SanchezT.2005. “Race, Space and Unemployment Duration.” Journal of Urban Economics58:91–113.
22.
DeLucaS.DaytonE.2009. “Switching Contexts: The Effects of Housing Mobility and School Choice Programs on Youth Outcomes.” Annual Review of Sociology35:457–91.
23.
DeLucaS.DuncanG.MendenhallR.KeelsM.2010. “Gautreaux Mothers and Their Children.” Housing Policy Debate20:7–25.
24.
DietzR.2002. “The Estimation of Neighborhood Effects in the Social Sciences.” Social Science Research31:539–75.
25.
DreverA.2004. “Separate Spaces, Separate Outcomes? Neighborhood Impacts on Minorities in Germany.” Urban Studies41 (8): 1423–39.
26.
DuncanG.ConnellJ.KlebanovP.1997. “Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Estimating Causal Effects of Neighborhoods and Family Conditions on Individual Development.” In Neighborhood Poverty. Vol. 1: Context and Consequences for Children, edited by Brooks-GunnJ.DuncanG.AberJ., 219–50. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
27.
EdinP.FredrickssonP.ÅslundO.2003. “Ethnic Enclaves and the Economic Success of Immigrants: Evidence from a Natural Experiment.” Quarterly Journal of Economics113:329–57.
28.
EllenI.TurnerM.2003. “Do Neighborhoods Matter and Why?” In Choosing a Better Life? Evaluating the Moving to Opportunity Experiment, edited by GoeringJ.FeinsJ., 313–38. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
29.
Fernandes-AlcantaraA. L.2012. “Youth and the Labor Force: Background and Trends.” Congressional Research Service Report for Congress. Available at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42519.pdf.
30.
FitzpatrickK.LagoryM.2000. Unhealthy Places: The Ecology of Risk in the Urban Landscape. New York: Routledge.
31.
FriedrichsJ.1998. “Do Poor Neighborhoods Make Their Residents Poorer? Context Effects of Poverty Neighborhoods on Their Residents.” In Empirical Poverty Research in a Comparative Perspective, edited by AndressH., 77–99. Aldershot: Ashgate.
32.
FurstenbergF, ed. 1999. Managing to Make It: Urban Families and Adolescent Success. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
33.
FurtadoB.2011. “Neighbourhoods in Urban Economics: Incorporating Cognitively Perceived Urban Space in Economic Models.” Urban Studies48:2827–48.
34.
GalsterG.2008. “Quantifying the Effect of Neighbourhood on Individuals: Challenges, Alternative Approaches and Promising Directions.” Journal of Applied Social Science Studies [Schmollers Jahrbuch/Zeitscrift fur Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften] 128:7–48.
35.
GalsterG.2012a. Driving Detroit: The Quest for Respect in the Motor City. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.
36.
GalsterG.2012b. “The Mechanism(s) of Neighborhood Effects: Theory, Evidence, and Policy Implications.” In Neighbourhood Effects Research: New Perspectives, edited by Van HamM.ManleyD.BaileyN.SimpsonL.MaclennanD., 23–56. Dordrecht: Springer.
37.
GalsterG.AnderssonR.MusterdS.2010. “Who Is Affected Most by Neighbourhood Income Mix?” Urban Studies48:2915–44.
38.
GalsterG.AnderssonS.MusterdS.KauppinenT.2008. “Does Neighborhood Income Mix Affect Earnings of Adults?” Journal of Urban Economics63:858–70.
39.
GalsterG.SantiagoA.2006. “What’s the ’Hood Got to Do with It? Parental Perceptions About How Neighborhood Mechanisms Affect Their Children.” Journal of Urban Affairs28 (3): 201–26.
40.
GalsterG.SantiagoA.LuceroJ.2014. “Employment of Low-Income African American and Latino Teens: Does Neighborhood Social Mix Matter?” Unpublished paper, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Wayne State Univ., Detroit, MI.
41.
GalsterG.SantiagoA.LuceroJ.CutsingerJ.2014. “Adolescent Neighborhood Context and Young Adult Economic Outcomes for Low-Income African Americans and Latinos.” Unpublished paper, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Wayne State Univ., Detroit, MI.
42.
GalsterG.SantiagoA.StackL.CutsingerJ.2014. “Neighborhood Effects on High School Performance of Latino and African American Youth: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Denver.” Unpublished paper, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Wayne State Univ., Detroit, MI.
43.
GennetianL.SciandraM.SanbonmatsuL.LudwigJ.KatzL.DuncanG.KlingJ.KesslerR.2012. “The Long-Term Effects of Moving to Opportunity on Youth Outcomes.” Cityscape14 (2): 137–68.
44.
GephartM.1997. “Neighborhoods and Communities as Contexts for Development.” In Neighborhood Poverty: Vol. I. Context and Consequences for Children, edited by Brooks-GunnJ.DuncanG.AberJ., 1–43. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
45.
HavemanR.WolfeB.1994. Succeeding Generations: On the Effects of Investments in Children. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
46.
HavemanR.WolfeB.1995. “The Determinants of Children’s Attainments: A Review of Methods and Findings.” Journal of Economic Literature33:1829–78.
47.
HedmanL.GalsterG.2013. “Neighborhood Income Sorting and the Effects of Neighborhood Income Mix on Income: A Holistic Empirical Exploration.” Urban Studies50 (1): 107–27.
48.
HedmanL.ManleyD.Van HamM.OsthJ.2013. “Cumulative Exposure to Disadvantage and the Intergenerational Transmission of Neighbourhood Effects.” Journal of Economic Geography. Published electronically before December17, 2013. doi:10.1093/jeg/lbt042.
49.
HollowayS.MulherinS.2004. “The Effect of Adolescent Neighborhood Poverty on Adult Employment.” Journal of Urban Affairs26:427–54.
50.
IoannidesY.LouryL.2004. “Job Information Networks, Neighborhood Effects, and Inequality.” Journal of Economic Literature42:1056–93.
51.
JencksC.MayerS.1990. “The Social Consequences of Growing Up in a Poor Neighborhood.” In Inner-City Poverty in the United States, edited by LynnL.McGearyM., 111–86. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
52.
LeventhalT.Brooks-GunnJ.2000. “The Neighborhoods They Live In.” Psychological Bulletin126:309–37.
53.
LewisK.Burd-SharpsS.2013. One in Seven: Ranking Youth Disconnection in the 25 Largest Metropolitan Areas. New York: Measure of America of the Social Science Research Council. http://www.measureofamerica.org/one-in-seven/ (accessed November 24, 2013).
54.
LudwigJ.2012. “Moving to Opportunity: Guest Editor’s Introduction.” Cityscape14 (2): 1–28.
55.
MasseyD.2007. Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
56.
McCullochA.2001. “Ward-Level Deprivation and Individual Social and Economic Outcomes in the British Household Panel Survey.” Environment and Planning A33:667–84.
57.
ModestinoA.2013. “Uncertain Futures: Are American Youth Increasingly Idle? Think Again.” New England Public Policy Center Policy Brief 13-4, Federal Reserve Bank, Boston, MA.
58.
MollenkopfJ.2005. Contentious City: The Politics of Recovery in New York City. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
59.
MoultonS.PeckL.DillmanK.2012. “Does Neighborhood Quality Affect Health and Well-Being? Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Demonstration.” Paper presented at Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Annual Meetings, Baltimore, MD, November.
60.
MuhajarineN.LabonteR.WilliamsA.RandallJ.2008. “Person, Perception, and Place: What Matters to Health and Quality of Life.” Social Indicators Research85:53–80.
61.
MusterdS.AnderssonR.2005. “Housing Mix, Social Mix and Social Opportunities.” Urban Affairs Review40:761–90.
62.
MusterdS.AnderssonR.2006. “Employment, Social Mobility and Neighborhood Effects.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research30:120–40.
63.
MusterdS.GalsterG.AnderssonR.2012. “Temporal Dimensions and the Measurement of Neighbourhood Effects.” Environment and Planning A44 (3): 605–27.
64.
MusterdS.OstendorfW.de VosS.2003. “Neighborhood Effects and Social Mobility.” Housing Studies18 (6): 877–92.
65.
O’ReganK.QuigleyJ.1996. “Spatial Effects Upon Employment Outcomes.” New England Economic Review1996:41–64.
66.
O’ReganK.QuigleyJ.1998. “Where Youth Live: Economic Effects of Urban Space on Employment Prospects.” Urban Studies35:1287–305.
67.
OreopoulosP.2003. “The Long-Run Consequences of Living in a Poor Neighborhood.” Quarterly Journal of Economics118:1533–75.
68.
OrrL.FeinsJ.JacobR.BeecroftE.SanbonmatsuL.KatzL.LiebmanJ.KlingJ.2003. Moving to Opportunity: Interim Impacts Evaluation. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
69.
Piil DammA.2009. “Ethnic Enclaves and Immigrant Labor Market Outcomes: Quasi-experimental Evidence.” Journal of Labor Economics27 (2): 281–314.
70.
Piil DammA.2014. “Neighborhood Quality and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Quasi-random Neighborhood Assignment of Immigrants.” Journal of Urban Economics79 (1): 139–66.
71.
PinksterF.2008. “Living in Concentrated Poverty.” Unpublished PhD diss., Department of Geography, Planning, and International Development Studies, Univ. of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
72.
PlotnickR.HoffmanS.1999. “The Effect of Neighborhood Characteristics on Young Adult Outcomes: Alternative Estimates.” Social Science Quarterly80 (1): 1–18.
73.
PropperC.BurgessS.BolsterA.LeckieG.JonesK.JohnstonR.2007. “The Impact of Neighbourhood on the Income and Mental Health of British Social Renters.” Urban Studies44:393–415.
74.
RaphaelS.1998. “Inter- and Intra-ethnic Comparisons of the Central City-Suburban Youth Employment Differential.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review51:55–524.
75.
RosenbaumJ.1991. “Black Pioneers: Do Moves to the Suburbs Increase Economic Opportunity for Mothers and Children?” Housing Policy Debate2:1179–213.
76.
RosenbaumJ.1995. “Changing the Geography of Opportunity by Expanding Residential Choice: Lessons from the Gautreaux Program.” Housing Policy Debate6:231–69.
77.
RosenbaumJ.DeLucaS.TuckT.2005. “New Capabilities in New Places: Low-Income Families in the Suburbs.” In The Geography of Opportunity, edited by BriggsX., 150–75. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
78.
RubinowitzL.RosenbaumJ.2000. Crossing the Class and Color Lines: From Public Housing to White Suburbia. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.
79.
SampsonR.2001. “How Do Communities Undergird or Undermine Human Development? Relevant Contexts and Social Mechanisms.” In Does It Take a Village? Community Effects on Children, Adolescents, and Family, edited by BoothA.CrouterA., 3–30. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
80.
SampsonR.2008. “Moving to Inequality: Neighborhood Effects and Experiments Meet Social Structure.” American Journal of Sociology114:189–231.
81.
SampsonR.MorenoffJ.EarlsF.1999. “Beyond Social Capital: Spatial Dynamics of Collective Efficacy for Children.” American Sociological Review64 (5): 633–60.
82.
SampsonR.MorenoffJ.Gannon-RowleyT.2002. “Assessing ‘Neighborhood Effects’: Social Processes and New Directions in Research.” Annual Review of Sociology28:443–78.
83.
SampsonR.SharkeyP.RaudenbushS.2008. “Durable Effects of Concentrated Disadvantage on Verbal Ability Among African-American Children.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences105:931–69.
84.
SanbonmatsuL.KlingJ.DuncanG.Brooks-GunnJ.2006. “Neighborhoods and Academic Achievement: Results from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment.” Journal of Human Resources41:649–91.
85.
SanbonmatsuL.LudwigJ.KatzL.GennetianL.DuncanG.KesslerR.AdamE.McDadeT.LindauS.2011. Impacts of the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Program After 10 to 15 Years. Washington, DC: Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
86.
SariF.2012. “Analysis of Neighbourhood Effects and Work Behaviour: Evidence from Paris.” Housing Studies27 (1): 45–76.
87.
SharkeyP.FaberJ.2014. “Where, When, Why, and for Whom Do Residential Contexts Matter? Moving Away from the Dichotomous Understanding of Neighborhood Effects.” Annual Review of Sociology40.
88.
ShierholzH.EdwardsK. A.2011. “The Class of 2011: Young Workers Face a Dire Labor Market Without a Safety Net.” Briefing Paper #306, Economic Policy Institute, Washington, DC.
89.
SmithC.2012. “The Impact of Low-Skilled Immigration on the Youth Labor Market.” Journal of Labor Economics30:55–89.
90.
SmolenskyE.2007. “Children in the Vanguard of the U.S. Welfare State.” Journal of Economic Literature45:1011–23.
91.
SouthS.2001. “Issues in the Analysis of Neighborhoods, Families, and Children.” In Does It Take a Village? Community Effects on Children, Adolescents, and Family, edited by BoothA.CrouterA., 87–94. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
92.
SykesB.MusterdS.2011. “Examining Neighbourhood and School Effects Simultaneously: What Does the Dutch Evidence Show?” Urban Studies48:1307–31.
93.
TurnerM.ComeyJ.KuehnD.NicholsA.2012. Residential Mobility, High-Opportunity Neighborhoods, and Outcomes for Low-Income Families: Insights from the Moving to Opportunity Demonstration. Washington, DC: Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Office of Policy Development and Research.
94.
UrbanS.2009. “Is the Neighbourhood Effect an Economic or an Immigrant Issue?” Urban Studies46 (3): 583–603.
95.
Van HamM.ManleyD.2009. “The Effect of Neighbourhood Housing Tenure Mix on Labor Market Outcomes: A Longitudinal Perspective.” Discussion Paper IZA DP No. 4094, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, Germany.
96.
Van HamM.ManleyD.2010. “The Effect of Neighbourhood Housing Tenure Mix on Labour Market Outcomes: A Longitudinal Investigation of Neighbourhood Effects.” Journal of Economic Geography10:257–82.
97.
Van KempenE.1997. “Poverty Pockets and Life Chances.” American Behavioral Scientist41:430–49.
98.
VartanianT.BuckP.2005. “Childhood and Adolescent Neighborhood Effects on Adult Income: Using Siblings to Examine Differences in OLS and Fixed Effect Models.” Social Service Review78:60–94.
99.
WeinbergB.ReaganP.YankowJ.2004. “Do Neighborhoods Affect Work Behavior? Evidence from the NLSY79.” Journal of Labor Economics22:891–924.
100.
WilsonW. J.1996. When Work Disappears. New York: Vintage Books.
101.
WodtkeG.HardingD.ElwertF.2011. “Neighborhood Effects in Temporal Perspective: The Impact of Long-Term Exposure to Concentrated Disadvantage on High School Graduation.” American Sociological Review76:713–36.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
