Moving in or Moving Down: Non -Linearities and Adolescent Risk Behavior
Jemison, Kyle Bryant
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/87179
Description
Title
Moving in or Moving Down: Non -Linearities and Adolescent Risk Behavior
Author(s)
Jemison, Kyle Bryant
Issue Date
2002
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Andrew Sofranko
Department of Study
Human and Community Development
Discipline
Human and Community Development
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Sociology, Individual and Family Studies
Language
eng
Abstract
"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."
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