The Cost of Everyday Mobility: Emotional Responses of Black Youth to Advantaged Neighborhood Settings

• In Event: 30816 - Space and Place

Abstract

Spatial isolation approaches to racial disparities have long assumed that lack of access to well-resourced communities is a critical mechanism through which racial segregation limits the wellbeing and life chances of Black youth. Recent research indicates that Black youth spend a substantial amount of time outside of segregated Black spaces due both to residence and everyday routines. Although exposure to advantaged urban areas may confer benefits to Black youth with respect to organizational and amenity access, ethnographic research points to substantial tradeoffs associated with these experiences in the form of elevated exposure to the risk of scrutiny, microaggression, and discrimination. To date, few quantitative studies have addressed the emotional experience of Black youth as they navigate socioeconomically advantaged urban areas, particularly Black youth in groups that include Black males. The presence of Black male youth may illicit higher levels of scrutiny in advantaged areas, with implications for the emotional responses of Black youth to these environments. We draw on unique geographically referenced ecological momentary assessment data from the 2014-16 Adolescent Health and Development in Context study to examine the in situ negative and positive emotional responses of Black youth to spending time in advantaged neighborhoods, emphasizing the potentially adverse effect of being in group of Black youth involving the presence of Black males. OLS regression models of emotional outcomes with youth-level fixed effects offer evidence that the affluence level of the immediate neighborhood environment is negatively associated with positive mood for Black youth when accompanied by multiple Black male youth. We discuss the implications of everyday routine location effects on mood for understanding racial disparities in the mental health and wellbeing for urban youth.

Authors

• Christopher R Browning, The Ohio State University

• Taehyun Kim, Ohio State University

• Bethany Boettner, Ohio State University

• Catherine A. Calder, The University of Texas at Austin