The Moderating Effects of Neighborhood Foreclosure on Recent Foreclosure and Mental and Physical Health

• In Event: 2184 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 19. Contextual Factors and Health

Abstract

The recent housing crisis brought foreclosure filings to over 9 million US properties between 2007 and 2010. While recent studies have found that foreclosures are detrimental to individual well-being, most studies have focused exclusively on either individual- or neighborhood-level foreclosures and their associations with health. Using data from the Michigan Recession and Recovery Study, we examined how neighborhood foreclosure rates moderate the relationship between individual foreclosure and health outcomes, such as depression and self-rated health.
We found that people experiencing a foreclosure suffered greater mental health penalties when residing in neighborhoods with low foreclosure rate. In contrast, living in a neighborhood with a high foreclosure rate was associated with lesser mental health penalties and greater negative effects on the mental health of those who were not experiencing foreclosure themselves. We found no such moderating effect for self-rated health, though individuals with a recent or current foreclosure experience were marginally more likely to report fair or poor self-rated health than those without a foreclosure experience. Our findings suggest that living in high-foreclosure neighborhoods may buffer the negative mental health effects for individuals facing a foreclosure.

Authors

• Sarah Seelye, University of Michigan

• Lucie Kalousova, Nuffield College, University of Oxford

• Sarah Burgard, University of Michigan