The association between neighbourhoods and educational achievement, a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Many studies have examined the effects of neighbourhoods on educational outcomes. The results of these studies are often conflicting, even if the same independent variables (such as poverty, educational climate, social disorganisation, or ethnic composition) are used. A systematic meta-analysis may help to resolve this lack of external validity. We identified 5516 articles from which we selected 88 that met all of the inclusion criteria. Using meta-regression, we found that the relation between neighbourhoods and individual educational outcomes is a function of neighbourhood poverty, the neighbourhood’s educational climate, the proportion of ethnic/migrant groups, and social disorganisation in the neighbourhood. The variance in the findings from different studies can partly be explained by the sampling design and the type of model used in each study. More important is the use of control variables (school, family SES, and parenting variables) in explaining the variation in the strength of neighbourhood effects.

The Dialectic of Neighborhood Social Mix: Editors' Introduction to the Special Issue

“…4 In the realm of youth educational outcomes, the evidence from econometric studies that deal with geographic selection is even more consensual in the negative consequences of concentrated disadvantage (cf. Aaronson, 1998;Crowder & Teachman, 2004;Galster et al, 2007;Jargowsky & El Komi, 2011), as a recent meta-analysis of the international literature concludes (Niewenhuis & Hooimeijer, 2014). 5 One particular aspect associated with concentrated disadvantage, exposure to violence, creates incontrovertible mental and physical harms to children that are manifested in degraded intellectual development and educational performance (Sharkey et al, 2012(Sharkey et al, , 2014.…”

Neighbourhood Poverty, Work Commitment and Unemployment in Early Adulthood: A Longitudinal Study into the Moderating Effect of Personality

“…Instead, households sort into neighbourhoods based on the preferences and constraints in the household, such as preferences for neighbourhoods close to certain amenities and financial constraints. When this selection bias is neglected, neighbourhood effects could be misspecified [46,47]. Since we study neighbourhoods during adolescence, selection bias in our analyses may be minimal, as children usually do not select their own neighbourhoods, but their parents decide when and where to move.…”

Elementary School Difficulties of Low-Income Latino and African American Youth: The Role of Geographic Context

“…Unfortunately, there is no consensus about the unbiased magnitude of context effects on educational outcomes from this set of studies that attempt to overcome selection bias (Burdick‐Will et al., ; Niewenhuis & Hooimeijer, ; Sharkey & Faber, ). The studies noted above that use the first five nonexperimental methods for overcoming selection bias find strong residential neighborhood effects on educational outcomes, with one exception (Weinhardt, ).…”

“…We note that caregiver reports of student outcomes are common in the vast neighborhood effects literature that employs Panel Study of Income Dynamics or National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data; see the meta‐analysis by Nieuwenhuis and Hooimeijer (). Nevertheless, we recognize the potential shortcomings of our school performance indicators.…”

“…The European‐based evidence is considerably more mixed in conclusions (cf. Kauppinen, ; Nicoletti & Rabe, 2010; Niewenhuis & Hooimeijer, ).…”