The Varying Effects of Neighborhood Disadvantage on College Graduation Moderating and Mediating Mechanisms

This study estimates the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on bachelor’s degree attainment with data from a long-term follow-up of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. We focus on heterogeneous effects by race and class as well as individual and neighborhood mechanisms that m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSociology of education Vol. 92; no. 3; pp. 269 - 292
Main Authors Levy, Brian L., Owens, Ann, Sampson, Robert J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA Sage Publications, Inc 01.07.2019
SAGE Publications
American Sociological Association
Subjects
Adolescents
African American Students
Bachelors Degrees
Black white relations
Disadvantaged
Educational Attainment
Educational sociology
Effect Size
Efficacy
Environmental Influences
Ethnicity
Expectation
Hispanic American Students
Hispanic Americans
Human development
Immigrants
Interpersonal Relationship
Latin American cultural groups
Life chances
Low income groups
Neighborhoods
Parent Attitudes
Race
Racial Differences
Sensitivity analysis
Social relations
Social research
Socioeconomic Status
Urban Areas
Violence
White Students
Illinois (Chicago)
inequality
neighborhood effects
causal modeling
educational attainment
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Summary:This study estimates the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on bachelor’s degree attainment with data from a long-term follow-up of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. We focus on heterogeneous effects by race and class as well as individual and neighborhood mechanisms that might explain observed patterns, including parents’ educational expectations, collective efficacy, social relationships, and neighborhood violence. Using newly developed methods for estimating longitudinal treatment effects, we find that cumulative neighborhood disadvantage in adolescence is strongly associated with lower bachelor’s attainment among high-income blacks and Latinos. We find no effect for whites and at most a modest effect among low- and middle-income blacks/Latinos. A sensitivity analysis suggests that the estimated effect for high-income blacks/Latinos is plausibly causal. These results support an advantage-leveling model of neighborhood effects and add important nuance for research considering how and for whom neighborhoods influence life chances.
ISSN:0038-0407
1939-8573
DOI:10.1177/0038040719850146