Moving in or Moving Down: Non -Linearities and Adolescent Risk Behavior

"The study finds that teens living in neighborhoods with moderate rates of poverty (10--20 percent poverty) are more likely to engage in adolescent risk behaviors than teens from neighborhoods with lower levels of poverty (<10 percent poverty). The results reveal statistically significant effects of neighborhood disadvantage on dropping out and teen childbearing at higher rates of poverty (above 20 percent poverty), however, the changes in slope at higher levels of poverty are extremely sensitive to model specification. In fact, the slope flattens after the initial jump from 0 to 20 percent poverty, demonstrating that additional increases in poverty result in only minor increases in school dropout rates and teen childbearing, until reaching extreme levels of poverty. These results suggests that parents who move their teens from neighborhoods of moderate quality into higher quality neighborhoods reduce the probability of their teen having a child or dropping out. The findings also imply that teens moving from moderate quality neighborhoods into neighborhoods of lower quality will see little change in the probability of dropping out or having a child. These results help to denounce the myth that teens moving into higher quality neighborhoods ""bring down"" that neighborhood. In fact the results indicate that policies such as those that grant housing vouchers produce a win-win solution to housing policy. Non-linearities also indicate that policies intended to attract middle-class residents to poor neighborhoods, such as the construction of middle-class housing in poor neighborhoods, will benefit the poor residents of the neighborhood more than they hurt the new middle-class neighborhood residents."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human and Community Development

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Jemison, Kyle Bryant

Contributors dc:contributor

• Andrew Sofranko

• Sociology, Individual and Family Studies

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3044125

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/87179