Distinguishing between the Effects of Residential Mobility and Neighborhood Change on Children's Well-Being

Margot I. Jackson, Brown University

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. Despite this, researchers rarely examine the influence of each process separately. 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 Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its Child Development Supplement, 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.