Neighborhoods and Educational Expectations: How Youth Come to Embody Their Neighborhoods
Open Access
- Author:
- Evans, Megan
- Graduate Program:
- Sociology
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- January 28, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Stephen Augustus Matthews, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Barrett Alan Lee, Committee Member
Katerina Bodovski, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Neighborhood Effects
Educational Expectations
Extralocal Neighborhood
Urban/Rural Divide - Abstract:
- Much of the research on neighborhood effects demonstrates a clear connection between living in disadvantaged neighborhoods and having lower levels of educational attainment. Theories describe multiple mechanisms (i.e. social isolation, collective socialization, contagion/epidemic effects, and institutional resources) that can explain this relationship. However, there is one mechanism often discussed in these theories that has not yet been thoroughly explored – educational expectations. And, arguably, beyond the lack of empirical research around neighborhoods and educational expectations, theories around neighborhood effects generally describe only urban places, with studies solely relying on residential census tracts. More recent research, however, points to the importance of incorporating information on census tracts beyond the focal residential tract (i.e., looking at the ‘extralocal’ neighborhood), for a fuller understanding of how neighborhoods are interdependent with one another. In this paper I aim to fill this empirical gap by examining whether or not neighborhoods directly affect the development of educational expectations; and if they do, I ask how. Data for this study comes from the ECLS-K (1998/99 cohort) which enables a national study on how neighborhoods impact educational expectations of 8th grade students. Only after accounting for the interdependence of a ‘focal’ neighborhood with its surroundings (i.e., the ‘extralocal’ neighborhood), does the focal 8th grade neighborhood show a significant relationship with educational expectations. Additionally, in contrast to the 8th grade focal neighborhood effect, experiencing disadvantage in one’s focal neighborhood between the ages of 5 and 9 has a lagged effect on 8th grade educational expectations. Finally, results point to neighborhood effects varying in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Findings from this study have implications which point to importance of ‘extralocal’ neighborhoods and the salience of neighborhood disadvantage during early childhood.