Geographic disadvantage and quality of employment

Abstract Many policymakers assume that children's neighbourhoods shape their career trajectories, but the facts are otherwise. Challenges: (1) Because many children in poor postcodes have disadvantaged families, modelling the causal influence of neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES) requires...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Australian journal of social issues Vol. 58; no. 3; pp. 685 - 713
Main Authors Kelley, Jonathan, Evans, M. D. R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Sydney Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.2023
Subjects
Adults
Career advancement
Careers
Causality
Childhood
Children
Disadvantaged
Employment
Ethnicity
Families & family life
Fathers
Job satisfaction
Low income groups
Measurement errors
Neighborhoods
Occupational achievement
Occupational status
Policy making
Social status
Socioeconomic factors
Socioeconomic status
Spatial analysis
Structural equation modeling
Structural models
Working mothers
Australia
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Summary:Abstract Many policymakers assume that children's neighbourhoods shape their career trajectories, but the facts are otherwise. Challenges: (1) Because many children in poor postcodes have disadvantaged families, modelling the causal influence of neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES) requires a comprehensive set of control variables measuring family background. (2) Adults can choose where to live, so dwelling in a high SES postcode is partially a consequence of occupational success, not a cause. Hence, we must focus on childhood postcode SES. (3) Random measurement error in postcode SES can bias estimates. Data: Large, representative national samples from the International Social Science Survey/Australia. OLS and structural equation models. Correlations between a person's childhood postcode SES and their education, adult occupational status (which robustly measures job quality, social status and permanent income) and family income are all modest, around r  = .15. Net of family background (fathers' occupational status, fathers' class, mothers' employment, parents' culture, ethnicity, demographics and respondent's IQ) multivariate analyses show that growing up in a low SES postcode is only a slight disadvantage, which arises entirely because children there get about half a year less education than comparable children in high SES postcodes. Otherwise, there is no statistically significant childhood postcode disadvantage in career opportunities.
ISSN:0157-6321
1839-4655
DOI:10.1002/ajs4.247