Cityscape Examines Housing, Contexts, and the Well-Being of Children and Youth

Cityscape Examines Housing, Contexts, and the Well-Being of Children and Youth

The latest issue of Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research features a research symposium about the effects of housing and community contexts on the development and outcomes of children and youth. Guest editors Elizabeth Rudd and Molly Irwin explain that the symposium is based on the premise that contexts in which children grow influence outcomes independently from time-invariant, family- and individual-level factors. The articles in this research symposium draw from several disciplines and bodies of knowledge. Takeaways from the symposium — apart from the fact that effects of context may vary by age, developmental stage, and outcome — highlight the need for better definition, measurement, and analytic tools with which to ultimately improve the environments where children spend time.

Sara Anderson, Tama Leventhal, Sandra Newman, and Veronique Dupéré examine the impact of residential mobility on children by developing a framework to better understand the relationship between moving and outcomes at different stages of youth development. These researchers conclude that it’s unlikely that moving to a new home itself directly influences children’s development. They argue instead that causes of adverse developmental outcomes will be found in changes in contexts such as the family, neighborhood, peer group, and school associated with a move, and that these relationships will be different for children at different developmental stages.

Rebekah Levine Coley, Melissa Kull, Tama Leventhal, and Alicia Doyle Lynch examine the constraints and opportunities for low-income families seeking adequate affordable housing in safe communities. Studying a representative sample of low-income families with children, the authors developed four profiles of housing and neighborhood characteristics from the high-poverty urban neighborhoods in which the families lived. Housing and neighborhood profiles were found to be associated with children’s functioning in counterintuitive ways, pointing to the need for analytic methods based on a holistic understanding of the interconnected factors that influence opportunities and outcomes for children.

Brett Theodos, Claudia Coulton, and Amos Budde explore the relationship between residential mobility, school mobility, and educational opportunity as factors in youth outcomes, based on data derived from 10 low-income communities participating in Making Connections, a place-based program intended to improve distressed neighborhoods. In a representative sample of resident families with children, researchers found frequent moves and changes in schools, but the two kinds of moves were often not related. The education of parents, race, food security, financial hardship, and moving out of the baseline school district were all factors in whether switching schools resulted in attending a higher or lower ranking school.

Robin Smith, Megan Gallagher, Susan Popkin, Amanda Mireles, and Taz George highlight the importance for youth development of an under-studied aspect of neighborhood quality, the sexual environment. They examine the impact of coercive sexual environments on young women in Moving to Opportunity (MTO) for Fair Housing Demonstration households. The authors used survey data and interviews in which female MTO participants described experiences of sexual harassment in their neighborhoods. A statistically significant relationship was found between reports of harassment and chronically distressed neighborhoods.

J. J. Cutuli and Janette E. Herbers use the body of knowledge regarding resilience and risk to better understand and identify impacts of homelessness on the development of children. They highlight positive parenting and self-regulation as two systems of adaptation that enable children to counter the negative effects of homelessness on child development. The authors suggest that enhancing, supporting, and facilitating these systems can help children achieve better outcomes.

Emily Feinberg, Bricia Trejo, Brianna Sullivan, and Zhandra Ferreira-Cesar Suarez explore the unique collaboration between the Boston Housing Authority and the Boston Public Health Commission to create a program to help pregnant women at risk of homelessness and medical complications to secure housing. Data from stakeholder interviews, staff focus groups, and archival records were analyzed to identify key factors in successful cross-agency collaboration and the implications for participant outcomes. A shared perspective on development known as life-course theory, shared goals, and previous experience in interagency collaboration all facilitated the collaboration.

Christopher R. Browning and Brian Soller describe how understanding the influence of neighborhood contexts on the daily lives of youth can be advanced through application of concepts and methods from geography and social network analysis. The authors offer a theoretical model focused on the interrelationship between neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics and social organizational dimensions of neighborhoods pertaining to youth. Browning and Soller conclude with a call for contextual effects research to use new data collection technologies to more closely observe the mechanisms through which urban environments influence youth outcomes.

Sandra Garcia Jaramillo responds to ideas presented in the symposium from a Latin American perspective, highlighting the importance of increased mobility to higher quality residential opportunities, improved conditions of communities and housing, solutions that acknowledge differing needs across age groups and communities, and providing a variety of services beyond housing. From a European perspective on the well-being of children and youth, Roger Andersson notes similarities and differences between residential and community contexts of the United States and Europe, and suggests that cross-Atlantic comparative studies could be useful.

In Cityscape’s Point of Contention section John C. Weicher, Eric Toder, Jan K. Brueckner, and Dennis J. Ventry, Jr. offer expert viewpoints on the home mortgage interest deduction.

Three refereed papers are showcased in this issue. Lei Ding explores whether loan applications for purchases of homes in neighborhoods with small numbers of past transactions are less likely to be approved than in neighborhoods with more activity. Margaret Walls compares the relative energy impacts of different types of policy for increasing the energy efficiency of homes. Nikhil Kaza, Roberto G. Quercia, and Chao Yue Tian find that the level of risk on a mortgage for a house that is ENERGY STAR-certified is lower than one that is not.

This issue also features short analytical works: Data Shop: Measuring Housing Affordability by Paul Joice; Graphic Detail: The Outlines and Extents of Segregation by Ron Wilson; Industrial Revolution: Waste Management at the Residential Construction Site by Joseph Laquatra and Mark Pierce; Policy Briefs: Recovery Ratios in the Savings and Loan Crisis: Evidence From the Resolution Trust Corporation's Sale of Bank-Owned Real Estate by Daniel Bergstresser and Richard Peiser; SpAM: Measuring Spatial Mismatch Between Homelessness and Homeless Resources With a Theil Index and Statistical Inference by Brent D. Mast, and Using Location Quotients To Test for Negative Secondary Effects of Sexually Oriented Businesses by Eric S. McCord.