We investigate how neighborhood socioeconomic conditions (SES), family resources during adolescence, and high school completion are related for a sample of at-risk youth. Borrowing from the “neighborhood effects” and family literatures, we investigate whether the effects of family economic resources, connections to the community, school, and religious institutions and family structure on high school completion depend on levels of neighborhood SES. Analyses using panel data on nearly five hundred families in urban Philadelphia confirm that high SES neighborhoods enhance parental ability to turn some but not all of their resources into positive educational outcomes for their children. The results provide a basis for understanding the processes whereby neighborhoods influence parent-child resource transmission.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AinsworthJames W.2002. “Why Does It Take a Village? The Mediation of Neighborhood Effects on Educational Achievement.”Social Forces81: 117–52.
2.
Ainsworth-DarnellJames W.DowneyDouglas B., 1998. “Assessing the Oppositional Culture Explanation for the Racial/Ethnic Differences in School Performance.”American Sociological Review63: 536–53.
3.
AndersonElijah. 1990. Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
4.
AstoneNan MarieMcLanahanSara S., 1991. “Family Structure, Parental Practices, and High School Completion.”American Sociological Review56: 309–20.
5.
BlauPeterDuncanOtis Dudley. 1967. The American Occupational Structure. New York: Wiley.
6.
Brooks-GunnJeanneDuncanGreg J.AberJ. Lawrence. 1997. Neighborhood Poverty: Context and Consequences for Children. Vol. 1. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
7.
Brooks-GunnJeanneDuncanGreg J.KlebanovPamela K.SealandNaomi. 1993. “Do Neighborhoods Influence Child and Adolescent Development?”American Journal of Sociology99: 353–95.
8.
CatsambisSophiaBeveridgeAndrew A., 2001. “Does Neighborhood Matter? Family, Neighborhood, and School Influences on Eighth-Grade Mathematics Achievement.”Sociological Focus34: 435–57.
9.
CochranMoncrieff. 1990. “Environmental Factors Constraining Network Development.” Pp. 277–306 in Extending Families: The Social Networks of Parents and Their Children, edited by CochranM.LarnerD. R.GunnarssonL.HendersonJ. C. R., New York: Cambridge University Press.
10.
ColemanJames S.1988. “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital.”American Journal of Sociology94: S95–S120.
11.
ColemanJames S.1990. Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
12.
ColemanJames S.HofferThomas. 1987. Public and Private High Schools: The Impact of Communities. New York: Basic Books.
13.
CookThomas D.EcclesJacquelynneElderGlennFurstenbergFrank F.Jr.SameroffArnold S., 2000. “Successful Adolescence in High Risk Settings: Interrelating Family, Peer, Neighborhood, and School Factors.” Unpublished manuscript.
14.
CoserR. L.1991. In Defense of Modernity: Role Complexity and Individual Autonomy. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
15.
CrosnoeRobert. 2001. “Parental Involvement in Education: The Influence of School and Neighborhood.”Sociological Focus34: 417–34.
16.
CrowderKyleSouthScott J., 2003. “Neighborhood Distress and School Dropout: The Variable Significance of Community Context.”Social Science Research32: 659–98.
17.
DornbuschSanford M.RitterPhilip L.SteinbergLaurence. 1991. “Community Influences on the Relation of Family Statuses to Adolescent School Performance: Differences between African Americans and Non-Hispanic Whites.”American Journal of Education99: 543–67.
18.
DuncanGreg. 1994. “Families and Neighbors as Sources of Disadvantage in the Schooling Decisions of White and Black Adolescents.”American Journal of Education103: 20–53.
19.
ElderGlen H.Jr.CongerRand D.FosterE. MichaelArdeltMonica. 1992. “Families Under Economic Pressure.”Journal of Family Issues31: 5–37.
20.
ElliottDelbertWilsonWilliam J.HuizingaDavidSimpsonRichard J.ElliottAmandaRankinBruce. 1996. “The Effects of Neighborhood Disadvantage on Adolescent Development.”Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency33: 389–426.
21.
FeathermanDavid L.HauserRobert M., 1978. Opportunity and Change. New York: Academic Press.
22.
FurstenbergFrank F.Jr.CookThomas D.EcclesJacquelynneElderGlen H.SameroffArnold. 1999. Managing to Make It: Urban Families and Adolescent Success. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
23.
FurstenbergFrank F.Jr.KaplanSarah. 2001. “Social Capital and the Family.” Pp. 45–74 in The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of the Family, edited by ScottJ. L.TreasJ.RichardsM., New York: Blackwell.
24.
GanzeboomHarry B.TreimanDonald J.UlteeWout C., 1991. “Comparative Intergenerational Stratification Research: Three Generations and Beyond.”Annual Review of Sociology17: 277–302.
HauserRobert M.FeathermanDavid L., 1977. The Process of Stratification: Trends and Analysis. New York: Academic Press.
27.
JarrettRobin L.1997. “Bringing Families Back In: Neighborhoods' Effects on Child Development.” Pp. 48–64 in Neighborhood Poverty: Context and Consequences for Children, vol. 1, edited by Brooks-GunnJ.DuncanG. J.AberJ. L., New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
28.
JencksChristopherCorcoranMaryCrouseJamesEaglesfieldDavidJacksonGregoryMcClellandKentMueserPeterOlneckMichaelSchwartzJosephWardSherryWilliamsJill. 1979. Who Gets Ahead? The Determinants of Economic Success in America. New York: Basic Books.
29.
JencksChristopherMayerSusan. 1990. “The Social Consequences of Growing Up in a Poor Neighborhood.” Pp. 111–86 in Inner-City Poverty in the United States, edited by McGearyM.LynnL., Washington, DC: National Academy.
KipkeMichele D.1999. Risks and Opportunities: Synthesis of Studies on Adolescence. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
32.
LeventhalTamaraBrooks-GunnJeanne. 2000. “The Neighborhoods They Live In: The Effects of Neighborhood Residence on Child and Adolescent Outcomes.”Psychological Bulletin126: 309–37.
33.
MacLeodJay. 1995. Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
34.
McCaulEdward J.DonaldsonGordon A.Jr.ColadarciTheodoreDavisWilliam E., 1992. Consequences of Dropping out of School: Findings from High School and Beyond. Journal of Educational Research85: 198–207.
35.
McLanahanSaraSandefurGary D., 1994. Growing up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
36.
McLaughlinMilbrey W.IrbyMerita A.LanagmanJuliet. 1994. Urban Sanctuaries: Neighborhood Organizations in the Lives and Futures of Inner-City Youth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
37.
McNealRalph B.Jr.1999. “Parental Involvement as Social Capital: Differential Effectiveness on Science Achievement, Truancy, and Dropping Out.”Social Forces78: 117–44.
38.
MurnaneRichard J.WillettJohn B.LevyFrank. 1995. “The Growing Importance of Cognitive Skills in Wage Determination.”Review of Economics and Statistics77: 251–66.
39.
National Center for Education Statistics. 2001. Dropout Rates in the United States: 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement.
40.
National Research Council. 1993. Losing Generations: Adolescents in High-Risk Settings. Panel on High-Risk Youth, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
41.
NeildRuth Curran. 2004. “Parent Management of School Choice in a Large Urban District.” Unpublished manuscript.
42.
ParcelToby L.DufurMikaela J., 2001. “Capital at Home and at School: Effects on Student Achievement.”Social Forces79: 881–912.
43.
RankinBruceQuaneJames M., 2002. “Social Contexts and Urban Adolescent Outcomes: The Interrelated Effects of Neighborhoods, Families, and Peers on African-American Youth.”Social Problems49: 79–100.
44.
RoscignioVincent J.1999. “The Black-White Achievement Gap, Family-School Links, and the Importance of Place.”Sociological Inquiry69: 159–86.
45.
RossCatherine E.ReynoldsJohnGeisKarlyn. 2000. “The Contingent Meaning of Neighborhood Stability for Residents' Psychological Well-Being.”American Sociological Review65: 581–97.
46.
RumbergerRussell. 1987. “High School Dropouts: A Review of Issues and Evidence.”Review of Educational Research57: 101–21.
47.
SampsonRobert J.GrovesW. B., 1989. “Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-Disorganization Theory.”American Journal of Sociology94: 774–802.
48.
SampsonRobert J.MorenoffJeffrey D.EarlsFelton. 1999. “Beyond Social Capital: Spatial Dynamics of Collective Efficacy for Children.”American Sociological Review64: 633–60.
49.
SampsonRobert J.MorenoffJeffrey D.Gannon-RowleyThomas. 2002. “Assessing ‘Neighborhood Effects’: Social Processes and New Directions in Research.”Annual Review of Sociology38: 443–78.
50.
SewellWilliam H.HauserRobert M., 1975. Education, Occupation, and Earnings: Achievement in the Early Career. New York: Academic Press.
51.
StackCarol B.1970. All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community. New York: Harper and Row.
52.
WacquantLoic J. D.1996. “Red Belt, Black Belt: Racial Division, Class Inequality and the State in the French Urban Periphery and the American Ghetto.” Pp. 235–74 in Urban Poverty and the Underclass, edited by MingioneE., Cambridge: Blackwell.
53.
WacquantLoic J. D.WilsonWilliam J., 1989. “The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in the Inner City.”Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science501: 8–25.
54.
WeissChristopher C.TeitlerJulien O., 2004. “Parenting Practices as Modifiers and Moderators of Adolescents' Educational Outcomes.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Minneapolis, MN.
55.
WilsonWilliam Julius. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
56.
WilsonWilliam Julius. 1996. When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. New York: Knopf.
