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To cite this article: Ingrid Gould Ellen & Margery Austin Turner (1997) Does neighborhood matter? Assessing recent evidence,
Housing Policy Debate, 8:4, 833-866, DOI: 10.1080/10511482.1997.9521280
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Does Neighborhood Matter?
Housing Policy Assessing
Debate Recent8,Evidence
Volume Issue 4 833
833
Fannie Mae Foundation 1997. All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This article synthesizes findings from a wide range of empirical research into
how neighborhoods affect families and children. It lays out a conceptual
framework for understanding how neighborhoods may affect people at differ-
ent life stages. It then identifies methodological challenges, summarizes past
research findings, and suggests priorities for future work.
Introduction
Conceptual framework
before they begin school. Infants and toddlers are not consis-
tently exposed to neighborhood institutions and do not generally
form close, ongoing relationships with people outside their
homes and families. As children grow up, however, the influence
of the immediate family on their values, worldview, and behavior
gradually wanes, and the importance of peers and adults outside
the family grows (Berndt 1996; Bronfenbrenner 1979). Moreover,
theories of child development suggest that the influence of peers
(as opposed to adults) increases significantly during the teen
years, when young people assert their independence not only
from their immediate families, but also from other adults in
their schools and communities (Berndt 1996; Connell and
Halpern-Felsher 1997; Steinberg and Silverberg 1986). The
impact of neighborhood on adults probably operates somewhat
differently, influencing peoples ability to gain access to services,
information, and opportunities, rather than directly shaping
their worldview or behavior.3
6
In reviewing the existing theoretical and empirical literature, we mecanismos
have identified six distinct mechanisms through which neighbor- pelos quais a
hood conditions may influence individual outcomes: quality of vizinhana
local services, socialization by adults, peer influences, social afeta
networks, exposure to crime and violence, and physical distance resultados
and isolation. We build upon theories developed by others and
owe a particular debt to Jencks and Mayer (1990b). The remain- individuais
der of this section introduces these six mechanisms and explores JENCKS E
how their relative importance may vary by life stage. But at any MAYER
life stage, not all individuals and families are necessarily af-
fected by neighborhood environment to the same degree. Some
people have strong social networks, sources of support, or other
resources that extend beyond the neighborhood in which they
live. For example, affluent families who live in poor school dis-
tricts can typically afford to send their children to private
schools or to otherwise supplement their childrens education if
the local public schools are inadequate. In contrast, a single
mother working full-time at the minimum wage is probably
much more dependent on the local public school system to pro-
vide educational services to her children. Thus, it seems likely
that some types of families or individuals may be more vulner-
able to the influences of neighborhood environment than others.4
2
Socialization by adults
Peer effects may also play a role during the elementary school
years, as children interact more intensely with people outside
their families and form more intimate friendships. At this stage,
however, we posit that the influence of same-age peers is prob-
ably not as critical as the influence of older children and teen-
agers in the neighborhood, because elementary school children
naturally look up to, and tend to emulate, those who are older
than they are. Moreover, the influence of older children may
simply be more critical, since the antisocial behaviors of such
6Adults may also be influenced by peers, but we discuss these effects in the
context of social networks, below.
7 Most researchers, following the example of Jencks and Mayer (1990b), refer
to peer effects as contagion effects and tend to stress the spread of negative
behavior. But peer influences can just as easily lead to positive behavior as
well (Berndt 1996).
840 Ingrid Gould Ellen and Margery Austin Turner
more socially cohesive community are more apt to look out for
their neighbors, help them weather hard times, and share infor-
mation with them about relevant community news, key re-
sources, and job openings (Coleman 1990; Coulton and Pandey
1992; Furstenberg 1993; Putnam 1995; Sampson and Groves
1989; Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls 1997; Temkin and Rohe
1997). There is even some evidence that the neighborhood envi-
ronment influences peoples level of civic and political participa-
tion (Cohen and Dawson 1993). As Sampson, Raudenbush, and
Earls (1997, 919) explain, people are less likely to get involved
when the rules are unclear and people mistrust or fear one
another.
and support from other sources. But people who lack these larger
networks may be much more dependent on services and supports
within the neighborhood. As a result, vulnerable individuals may
be severely constrained by a neighborhood in which few people
work in decent-paying jobs.8
8 Some researchers have found evidence that poor peoples social ties are more
localized than those of middle-class people (see Briggs 1997a).
9This argument could be extended to class segregation as well, although of
course a persons class background is less immediately apparent than his or
her race.
842 Ingrid Gould Ellen and Margery Austin Turner
and adults who have been arrested or served time in jail may not
be deterred by fear or shame from engaging in criminal activity.
Indeed, Anderson (1994, 94) reports that in certain inner-city
communities the toughening-up one experiences in prison can
actually enhance ones reputation on the street.
3
have pointed out, it is difficult to separate the effects of neigh-
borhood environment from individual or family characteristics,
especially characteristics that are difficult to measure and ob-
serve. Failure to effectively address these pitfalls may cause
exagerar
some studies to overstate the effects of neighborhood environ-
ment on individual outcomes. But it is also possible that these
methodological challenges result in the understatement of neigh-
borhood effects. atenuaao
Adolescents
efeito
The potential impact of neighborhood environment is most com- vizinhana e
pelling during the adolescent years, as children spend less time os
with their immediate families and more time interacting with adolescentes
peers. Indeed, researchers have found that adolescents spend *****
roughly twice as much time with peers as they spend with their
parents or other adults (Connell and Halpern-Felsher 1997). Not
surprisingly, then, most of the research on neighborhood effects
has focused on teenagers and young adults. Because the studies
of teenage behavior are so numerous and diverse, our discussion
of the empirical evidence is divided into four subject areas:
educational attainment, employment, sexual activity and preg-
nancy, and crime.
realizaao educacional
Educational attainment. The existing literature on adolescent
educational attainment provides general support for the notion
that neighborhoods play a role (Aaronson 1997; Brooks-Gunn *****
et al. 1993; Case and Katz 1991; Clark 1992; Crane 1991;
Datcher 1982; Dornbusch, Ritter, and Steinberg 1991; Duncan educaao e
1994; Duncan, Connell, and Klebanov 1997; Garner and
Raudenbush 1991; Haveman and Wolfe 1994). But the evidence efeito
is contradictory as to which neighborhood characteristics matter vizinhana
most and which adolescents may be most vulnerable to neighbor-
hood effects. Research by Crane (1991) and Dornbusch, Ritter,
and Steinberg (1991) suggests that African-American teenagers
are affected more adversely than whites by living in high-poverty
areas. Yet Duncan (1994), Brooks-Gunn et al. (1993), and Clark
(1992) find that black adolescents are the least affected by
the benefits of affluent neighbors. And the results of Plotnick
and Hoffman (1996) and of Evans, Oates, and Schwab (1992)
suggest that researchers should be cautious in interpreting the
Does Neighborhood Matter? Assessing Recent Evidence 851
14 Notably, other studies that have attempted to control for the unobserved
family characteristicseither through an instrumental-variables approach or
through a family fixed-effects modelfind that significant neighborhood
effects persist (Aaronson 1997; Case and Katz 1991; Duncan, Connell, and
Klebanov 1997).
15 Evans, Oates, and Schwab (1992) find that the effect of school composition
(in particular, the proportion of disadvantaged students) on teenage pregnancy
disappears in a two-stage model that considers school choice to be endogenous.
Plotnick and Hoffman (1996) examine sets of sisters to control for unobserved
family effects and find that the apparent link between pregnancy and neigh-
borhood conditions disappears.
852 Ingrid Gould Ellen and Margery Austin Turner
Yet virtually all the quantitative empirical work in this area has
simply analyzed aggregate neighborhood data, which makes it
difficult to dissect the independent roles of individual and com-
munity factors.
16 Case and Katz (1991) find that this effect persists in a two-stage model that
os adultos
The influence of neighborhoods on adults is likely to be quite
different from their impact on children and adolescents. In
particular, neighborhoods are likely to play a smaller role in ****
shaping values and behavior. Instead, the impact of neighbor-
hood is more likely to occur through the influence on residents
access to services, information, and economic opportunities.
Causal mechanisms
Authors
Ingrid Gould Ellen is Assistant Professor of Planning and Public Administra-
tion at the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University and is
currently a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar at Yale University. Margery Austin
Turner is Director of the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center at
the Urban Institute.
The authors thank Xavier de Souza Briggs, George Galster, John Kain,
Leighton Ku, Jens Ludwig, and an anonymous reviewer for their useful
comments and suggestions.
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