Towards an Understanding of the Continuity of Neighborhood Racial Context from Youth to Adulthood

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Neighborhood Context

Abstract

Recent study of individual residential mobility shows a tendency for people to move to neighborhoods with a racial composition like the ones they left and/or grew up in. In this study, we investigate this relationship with perpetuation theory, which claims that individuals perpetually experience similar racial contexts across institutions and the life course. We test the hypothesis that other things equal, white, black, and Latino young adults move to neighborhoods with a percentage of white that is similar to the same thing in the neighborhoods of their youth. We use a novel statistical technique, discrete choice analyses, and data from the National Education Longitudinal Study to test the hypothesis. The analyses shows consistent support for the hypothesis for blacks, whites, and Latinos across a variety of model specifications. We conclude that perpetuation theory may elucidate clues to the continuation of residentail segregation that are not currently explained by the widely used theories of residential segregation.

Authors

• Pat Rubio Goldsmith, Texas A&M University

• William Velez, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Maureen E. Pylman, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee