Beyond residential context: Mobility-based neighborhood networks and children’s academic outcomes

• In Event: Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Neighborhood Effects

Abstract

Neighborhoods are key contexts for children’s well-being. Past work finds that neighborhood composition influences academic achievement, net of family background, but much of this research focuses solely on residential environments. This study advances a mobility-based neighborhood network perspective, conceptualizing neighborhoods as interconnected through the routine travels of residents and visitors. Combining Panel Study of Income Dynamics data with movement data from SafeGraph, we test whether mobility-based neighborhood disadvantage (MND) predicts children’s academic achievement beyond residential neighborhood disadvantage (RND). Guided by the triple disadvantage framework, we assess the influence of residential disadvantage, the disadvantage of neighborhoods visited by residents, and the disadvantage of neighborhoods from which visitors originate. Preliminary results suggest MND significantly predicts achievement net of RND, with variation across sociodemographic groups and metropolitan contexts. These findings demonstrate that neighborhood effects on education extend beyond the boundaries of residential tracts, highlighting the importance of inter-neighborhood connections in reproducing educational inequality.

Authors

• Jennifer Candipan, Brown University

• Brian L. Levy, University of South Carolina

• Karl Vachuska, University of Wisconsin-Madison