Losing Generations Adolescents in High-Risk Settings (1993) / Chapter Skim
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4 NEIGHBORHOODS
4 NEIGHBORHOODS
Pages 63-80
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From page 63... ...
However defined, a neighborhood is a key setting for adolescent development. This chapter summarizes research about neighborhoods, with a focus on poverty concentration and racial and ethnic stratification, and then examines the effects of these neighborhoods on adolescent development.
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From page 64... ...
In addition, much research is based on decennial census data, but there is a significant time lag in the availability of those data for research. Thus, conclusions may be drawn for the period between 1970 and 1980, but one can only speculate from incomplete data regarding subsequent trends.
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From page 65... ...
Although suburban stratification is about 12 percent Tower than in central cities, it is still high, especially for blacks in the Northeast and Midwest Massey and Denton, 1988~. In 1980, 86 percent of suburban whites still lived in census tracts with less than 1 percent black residents.
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From page 66... ...
Although the poverty rate remained fairly constant from 1970 to 1980, there was a 75 percent increase in the number of census tracts with concentrated poverty, and, significantly, a 331 percent increase In the number of underclass neighborhoods isee Table 4-1J. That is, over the course of the decade, the number of Americans living in neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty had more than tripled.
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From page 67... ...
The growth in crack and cocaine markets since the early 1980s has placed additional stress on poor neighborhoods. The highly visible, lucrative, and violent drug markets have simultaneously accelerated the exodus of stable families and undermined the au
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From page 68... ...
neighborhooc3 wealth, public schools tend to be stratified by class, race, and ethnicity. About 90 percent of all students attend public schools, and less than 5 percent of those students attend schools with substantial bussing programs Mayer, 19911.
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From page 69... ...
from 1970 to 1980 support these expectations. As seen in Table 4-4, the Northeast had the smallest decrease in public assistance recipients and teenage births, the smallest increase in labor force participation rates, and the biggest increases in single-parent families ~overwhelmingly females and poverty rates.
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From page 70... ...
The South, in contrast. had the greatest decreases in public assistance recipients and poverty rates, the smallest increase in femaTe-headed families, the greatest increase in high school graduates, and the second-smallest increase in murder rates.
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From page 71... ...
have fears for the well-being of themselves and their children National Commission on Children, l991J. Employers also respond: people living in underclass neighl~orhoncl~ are less likeIv to be hired for a fob than those in l~etter ~ ~ ~ ~ 1 1 _ 1_ 1 1 ~ ~ off neighborhoods, even with the same background and SKlllS; anu one study of Chicago-area employers found screening of prospective employees by address to be a surrogate for racial and socioeconomic status of neighborhoods {Kirschenman and Neckerman, 19911.
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From page 72... ...
Ethnographic research has examined community-level processes and interactions, with an emphasis on identifying the ways in which adolescents respond to deteriorating neighborhood conditions. Quantitative research has examined the structural features of neighborhoods, such as concentrated poverty ant!
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From page 73... ...
In this context, babies are a real and meaning ~ _ _ , ful source of love in a setting with insutt~c~ent positive sanctions and caring attachments {Anderson, 1990; Musick, 1991~. Holding race and family background constant, births to unmarried adolescents are more likely in poor neighborhoods than in more affluent ones ;Tencks and Mayer, 1990b~.
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From page 74... ...
Employment It is likely that poor neighborhoods also affect adolescent employment prospects. Not only are employers less likely to hire young people from such neighborhoods, but adolescents often believe it more profitable to enter underground or illegitimate employment markets, such as drug cleating or gambling, than formal labor markets "Williams, 1989; Reiss and Roth, 1993~.
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From page 75... ...
It found that ~ ~ 1 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ _ ~ ~ ~ from 1970 to 1980 iTaylor and Covington, 1988J neighborhoods with increasing concentrations of poor persons also experienced increasing violence rates. Less expected was an increased level of violence in gentrifying neighborhoods-those with ~ , ~ .
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From page 76... ...
Relatively few studies rigorously examine the hypothesis that variation in neighborhood composition is a causal factor in aclolescent development. However, those few studies confirm that stratified neighborhoods independently contribute to dropping out of school, teenage parenthood, violent crime, and victimization.
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From page 77... ...
Solon 1987 Intergenerational transmission of education, income and earnings. Unpublished manuscript, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
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From page 78... ...
Harris 1990 Social Isolation and the Underclass. Unpublished manuscript, Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, Northwestern University.
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From page 79... ...
In Segregation, Integration, and Public Policy: National, State, and Metropolitan Trends in Public Schools. Chicago: University of Chicago.
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From page 80... ...
Logan 1982 Suburban racial segregation and black access to local public resources. Social Science Quarterly 63: 762-770.
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