Racial/Ethnic and Income Differences in Children’s Neighborhood Resources and Stressors

• In Event: Diversity in Children's Development across Neighborhood Contexts

Abstract

There is growing evidence that the neighborhoods children grow up in matter for their development (Chetty et al., 2016; Leventhal, 2018). At the same time, neighborhoods have long been an avenue through which racial stratification has been maintained. Racist practices such as redlining and consequent economic disinvestment from predominantly Black and Latinx communities have contributed to persistent disparities in neighborhood contexts across the U.S. racial strata (Roscigno et al., 2009; Rothstein, 2017; Turner, 2008). For instance, White and Asian households tend to live in more economically prosperous communities than Black and Latinx households on average, even after accounting for family income (Firebaugh & Farrell, 2015; Reardon et al., 2015).

The present research uses ECLS-K:2011 combined with administrative data from the American Community Survey, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting database, Zip Code Business Patterns, the Child Opportunity Index 2.0, and the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory to further elucidate how the neighborhood contexts of Black, White, Latinx, and Asian 5 year-olds compare, in general and across the income spectrum. More specifically, we will consider variations in the presence of educational services, health services, social services, cultural and recreational activities, quality schooling, environmental hazards, and crime, in addition to standard measures of neighborhood advantage and disadvantage. Beyond baseline differences in neighborhood features, we will also consider variations at the intersection of race and income. By testing interactions between family income and child race, we will probe the degree to which income buys access to favorable neighborhood features differentially for families raising Black, White, Latinx, and Asian children.

Preliminary results indicate that on average, within the U.S., Black and Latinx 5-year olds live in neighborhoods with relatively low-quality educational services and high rates of crime, but with a high number of resources; White children tend to live in neighborhoods with a low number of resources but relatively high quality educational services, in addition to low crime rates; and Asian children generally live in neighborhoods with the highest number of resources, the highest quality educational services, and low crime rates. Interactions suggest that although families with higher levels of income tend to live in better resourced, lower stress neighborhoods than their lower income peers, these patterns are not always parallel by child race. For example, income is more strongly linked to quality educational services for families raising Asian 5-year olds than for others, while it is less predictive of health service and cultural and recreational resource availability for these families. Divergent patterns are likely to reflect structural privilege and oppression at the intersection of race and income, as well as the culturally grounded and/or pragmatic trade-offs that families make in the context of structural disadvantage.

Acknowledging the limitations of pan-ethnic racial categories, we will also explore variations in neighborhood features by ethnicity and/or household immigration status, where possible. Better understanding the racialized distribution of neighborhood resources and stressors affecting young children in the U.S. is a critical step towards disrupting structural racism and promoting equitable neighborhood development.

Authors

• Bryn Spielvogel, University of Utah
  Presenting Author

• Rebekah Levine Coley, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Naoka Carey, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author