Distinguishing Between the Effects of Residential Mobility and Neighborhood Change on Children’s Well-Being: A Research Note

Abstract

Although the quality of a child’s neighborhood can fluctuate because of either his own migration or the movement of those around him, these two processes do not necessarily influence children in the
same way. Identifying the independent influence of each, if it exists, is an important step toward fully understanding how much and how characteristics of neighborhoods influence children. Using data from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we develop a method for separating the effects of residential mobility and neighborhood change on children’s well-being, and report the results of an analysis using that method. Small amounts of change in a five-year window prevent the identification of potentially striking variation in the effects of different compositional changes within and across children's neighborhoods. Nonetheless, our results suggest differences in the influence of compositional change depending on whether it occurs within or across neighborhoods. The data permit demonstration of the utility of the method and allow us to uncover findings that suggest the importance of separately considering the sources of variation in children's neighborhoods. This research will inform studies using data over a longer period of time, which will soon be available. In addition, although we focus on the case of the neighborhood, the method used here may serve as a useful starting point for separating components of temporal processes in other settings.