Keeping kin close? Geographies of family networks by race and income, 1981-2017

Objective

This study examined changes in geographic proximity to family members among race and income groups in the United States from 1981 to 2017.

Background

Close geographic proximity to family members can facilitate mutual support and strengthen family bonds. Some scholars argue that institutional sources of support have replaced many core family functions, which might mean that households are likely to live increasingly farther away from family. Advancing technology and changing labor market opportunities might reinforce this pattern. Yet, the ongoing cultural and emotional salience of family might curtail the effects of these factors on the increasing distance to family.

Method

We conducted a quantitative analysis of longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). We utilized the multigenerational structure of the PSID and restricted-use geocodes to map kin proximity at every interview from 1981 to 2017. We cross-classified our sample by race and income, focusing on Black and White respondents across income quartiles (n = 171,501 person-periods).

Results

High-income White respondents showed the greatest increases in distance from kin over time, whereas proximity to kin among other race-income groups was relatively stable.

Conclusion

Proximate kin has become less central in the lives of high-income White households over time, whereas close proximity to kin has been the norm over time for other racial and income groups. These results have implications for racial and income differences in kin relations over time.

The development of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) efficacy and identity among Mexican-origin youth across Latino/a destinations

Persistence in high school curricula leading to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers is structured by complex institutional systems, but developmental processes underlie how young people navigate these systems. This study examined differences in the development of STEM identity and efficacy during high school among Mexican-origin youth-a large and fast-growing demographic group that shows developmental assets and risks. Contextualizing development within larger community structures, this examination focused on the diverse array of destinations throughout the United States where Mexican-origin youth are living as contexts for their STEM identity and efficacy development. Drawing on a dataset integrating the High School Longitudinal study of 2009; Civil Rights Data Collection, decennial U.S. censuses, and the American Community Survey, multilevel models revealed variability in Mexican-origin math/science identity and efficacy development across destinations. Mexican-origin youth in established destinations had higher net growth in math identity but lower net growth in science efficacy than Whites in established destinations. Mexican-origin youth in new destinations followed similar trajectories as their Mexican-origin peers in established destinations but had lower net growth in science identity. Additionally, these patterns varied by immigrant generation. Mexican-origin youth who were the U.S.-born children of immigrants in established destinations had higher net growth in math identity than Whites in established destinations, but this generational group in new destinations had lower net growth in math identity, science identity, and science efficacy than these peers. These findings highlight the importance of communities and their embedded ecological contexts in shaping STEM identity and efficacy among Mexican-origin youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding The Health Landscapes Where Latinx Immigrants Establish Residence In The US

The diversity of health contexts in which members of the US Latinx population establish residence may provide insights into the variety of health challenges they face. We investigated differences in health professional shortages, general health services, health care safety-net supply, health access, and population health rankings across 3,113 US counties classified as established, new, or other Latinx population destinations. Compared with new destinations, established destinations had more health professional shortages, as well as higher rates of child and adult health uninsurance. New destinations had fewer health care safety-net services per 100,000 county residents than established destinations. Health contexts thus differ in significant ways across new and established Latinx destinations, and these differences have key implications for Latinx immigrant health.

Correction to: New Destinations and the Early Childhood Education of Mexican-Origin Children

In the original article, the authors neglected to include information in the Acknowledgements section about one additional NICHD grant that funded the study.

Race/ethnicity, human capital, and the selection of young children into early childhood education

Mexican-origin families face complex ethnic and immigration-based barriers to enrollment in early childhood education programs. As such, reducing barriers to enrollment for this population requires a better understanding of how Mexican-origin families work with, against, or around both general and group-specific constraints on educational opportunities. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, this study tailored broad social theory to the experience of Mexican-origin families to examine associations between human capital considerations and early childhood education enrollment within this population. Results supported the hypothesis that human capital considerations would be associated with early childhood care and education and provide limited evidence for the expectation that this link would be stronger for Mexican-origin families.

Kin location and racial disparities in exiting and entering poor neighborhoods

Blacks and Latinos/as are less likely than Whites to move from a poor neighborhood to a non-poor neighborhood and are more likely to move in the reverse direction. Using individual-level data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1980-2013) and neighborhood-level census data, this study explores the role that the spatial location of familial kin networks plays in explaining these racially and ethnically disparate mobility patterns. Blacks and Latinos/as live closer than Whites to nuclear kin, and they are also more likely than Whites to have kin members living in poor neighborhoods. Close geographic proximity to kin and higher levels of kin neighborhood poverty inhibit moving from a poor to a non-poor neighborhood, and increase the risk of moving from a non-poor to a poor tract. Racial/ethnic differences in kin proximity and kin neighborhood poverty explain a substantial portion of racial gaps in exiting and entering poor neighborhoods.

Community Contexts and Utilization of Early Childhood Care and Education among Mexican-Origin Children

Children of Mexican origin are under-enrolled in early childhood education programs relative to Black and White children, which is problematic given the potential benefits of early childhood education. o better understand this under-enrollment in ways that can inform efforts to change it in the future, this study examined how utilization of early care and education programs varied among Mexican-origin families according to the community contexts where they lived. Integrating data on Mexican-origin children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Birth Cohort (n = 1,100) with community data from the U.S. Census Bureau, logistic regressions revealed that the odds of enrollment in early care and education programs among Mexican-origin children increased as the supply of childcare centers in their counties increased. Holding childcare center supply constant, their enrollment also increased as the percent of co-ethnic Latinos/as in the county increased, especially for children from the least acculturated Mexican-origin families. Overall, these results suggest that ethnic enclaves might link Mexican-origin families to early childhood care and education programs for their children and that this role might be most important for families least likely to be connected to U.S. institutions.

Maternal Employment, Community Contexts, and the Child-Care Arrangements of Diverse Groups

Integrating family and child data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort with contextual data from the Census, this study examined associations among maternal employment, aspects of communities related to child care supply and demand, and the early care and education arrangements of 4-year-olds in Mexican-origin, black, and white families. Children with employed mothers were more likely to be in informal care arrangements than in early childhood education, regardless of racial/ethnic background. For children in Mexican-origin families, selection into informal care over early childhood education was more likely in zip codes with greater demand for care as measured by higher female employment. Utilization of parent care versus early childhood education was also more likely for children in Mexican-origin and black families in zip codes with higher female employment. Constraints associated with maternal employment thus hindered children from enrolling in early childhood education, and community contexts posed challenges for some groups.

The Long Road to Equality: A Meta-Regression Analysis of Changes in the Black Test Score Gap over Time

OBJECTIVE

We analyze changes in test score gaps between Black students and their peers from 1979 to 2010 and examine how observable factors contribute to the gap.

METHODS

Using meta-regression, we examine the relationship between African American racial status and achievement in United States K-12 education in 165 published studies.

RESULTS

The absolute relationship between Black status and achievement decreased during the 1980s and early 1990s, but was stagnant from the late 1990s through 2010. Socioeconomic status explained more than half of the gap, and the influence of socioeconomic status on the gap did not changed significantly over time. Schooling characteristics explained relatively little of the gap, but school-level factors increased in importance over time.

CONCLUSIONS

Black test score gap closure stagnated in an era when federal education policy sought to close racial achievement gaps. Observable factors explain more of the gap than has been previously recognized.

Influence of Proximity to Kin on Residential Mobility and Destination Choice: Examining Local Movers in Metropolitan Areas

A growing body of research has examined how family dynamics shape residential mobility, highlighting the social-as opposed to economic-drivers of mobility. However, few studies have examined kin ties as both push and pull factors in mobility processes or revealed how the influence of kin ties on mobility varies across sociodemographic groups. Using data on local residential moves from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) from 1980 to 2013, we find that location of noncoresident kin influences the likelihood of moving out of the current neighborhood and the selection of a new destination neighborhood. Analyses of out-mobility reveal that parents and young adult children living near each other as well as low-income adult children living near parents are especially deterred from moving. Discrete-choice models of neighborhood selection indicate that movers are particularly drawn to neighborhoods close to aging parents, white and higher-income households tend to move close to parents and children, and lower-income households tend to move close to extended family. Our results highlight the social and economic trade-offs that households face when making residential mobility decisions, which have important implications for broader patterns of inequality in residential attainment.

Segregation paradox? School racial/ethnic and socioeconomic composition and racial/ethnic differences in engagement

This study examines the associations between school racial/ethnic and socioeconomic composition and school engagement levels among Mexican-origin Latinos/as, African Americans, and non-Latino/a whites. Prior research suggests that whiter and more affluent schools should promote engagement, but some studies reveal paradoxes of school segregation whereby minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged students exhibit worse outcomes in schools with white and socioeconomically advantaged peers. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, this study examines the associations between the percent of non-minority students in the school, average school socioeconomic status, and three engagement outcomes: Liking school, involvement in school-sponsored activities, and coursework engagement. The findings reveal an affective-behavioral trade-off for students in schools with higher proportions of white students. Students who attend whiter schools are less likely to report that they like school, but they are more engaged in coursework. This affective-behavioral paradox is not unique to any particular racial/ethnic group.

Places where children are active: A longitudinal examination of children's physical activity

Using two-year longitudinal data, we examined locations where children spent time and were active, whether location patterns were stable, and relationships between spending time in their home neighborhood and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). At two time points (2007-2009 and 2009-2011), children living in the metropolitans areas of either San Diego, CA or Seattle, WA wore an accelerometer, and parents recorded their child's locations for seven days. Across two years, global average proportion of time spent in each location was stable, but total time and proportion of time in each location spent in MVPA decreased significantly across all locations. Children spent the largest proportion of time in MVPA in their home neighborhood at both time points, although they spent little time in their home neighborhood.