Context in continuity: The enduring legacy of neighborhood disadvantage across generations

Abstract

Neighborhoods may contribute to the maintenance of inequality in well-being across generations. We use 35 years of restricted geo-coded NLSY 1979 and NLSY Children and Young Adults data to estimate the association between multigenerational exposure to childhood neighborhood disadvantage and subsequent adult exposure. Invoking cousin fixed effects models that adjust for unobserved legacies of disadvantage that cascade across generations, we find that families where both parents and their children are exposed to childhood neighborhood disadvantage are likely to pass on the legacy of neighborhood disadvantage to successive generations, net of observed and unobserved confounders. Second, we find a direct intergenerational neighborhood association, net of observed and unobserved confounders. Third, we find that unobserved confounders nested in previous generations explain away the intragenerational neighborhood association. These findings reorient neighborhood theory to more seriously attend to the interdependence of neighborhood level and individual level antecedents of inequality across generations.

Structural racism and health in the age of COVID‐19: A selective review with policy implications

“…Disruptions to existing social networks may also undermine efforts to assist individuals in moving to more advantaged or less segregated neighborhoods (Chetty et al, 2022;Sharkey, 2012). Unwillingness to move to new, more advantaged areas may be a function of reluctance to leave longstanding, even intergenerational social networks (Alvarado & Cooperstock, 2021;Chetty & Hendren, 2018). Difficulties establishing new social ties may undermine the health benefits of living in a more advantaged area (Ludwig et al, 2008).…”

The Echo of Neighborhood Disadvantage: Multigenerational Contextual Hardship and Adult Income for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos

“…Exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods over multiple generations can work in ways that differ from exposure in a single generation because the level or dosage experienced can affect not only individuals, but also entire families through various mechanisms that develop over the long term (Alvarado and Cooperstock 2021; Hicks et al 2018; Jackson and Mare 2007; Wodtke, Harding, and Elwert 2011). Wilson’s (1996) theory of social isolation—which describes how consistent exposure to neighborhoods with a dearth of economic opportunities, rampant discrimination in housing, social disorganization, and intense policing limits well-being—provides evidence to support a multigenerational framework.…”

“… 7. Previous studies also use a composite measure of neighborhood disadvantage to provide a more holistic view of the resources embedded within neighborhoods (Alvarado 2016a; Crowder and South 2003, 2011; Harding 2009; Massey et al 2018; Sharkey 2013; Shih et al 2012). Unlike Sharkey and Elwert (2011) and Sharkey (2013), who use a measure of neighborhood poverty in childhood, we are among the first to use a multidimensional measurement of neighborhood disadvantage in the literature on multigenerational neighborhood effects (Alvarado and Cooperstock 2021). …”

The Echo of Neighborhood Disadvantage: Multigenerational Contextual Hardship and Adult Income for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos

“…[Figure 1 here] Exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods over multiple generations can work in ways that differ from exposure in a single generation because the level or dosage experienced can affect not only individuals, but entire families, through various mechanisms that develop over the long-term (Alvarado and Cooperstock 2021;Hicks et al 2017;Jackson and Mare 2007;Wodtke, Harding, and Elwert 2011a). Wilson's (1996) theory of social isolation -which describes how consistent exposure to neighborhoods with a dearth of economic opportunities, rampant discrimination in housing, social disorganization, and intense policing limits well-being -provides evidence to support a multigenerational framework.…”