The randomized design of the Moving To Opportunity demonstration allows us to compare groups of youth, initially similar and living in high-poverty public housing.

An "experimental" group was offered vouchers valid only in a low-poverty neighbourhood; a "Section 8" group was offered traditional vouchers without geographic restriction; and a control group was not offered vouchers.

The research studies outcomes in four domains: education, risky behaviour, mental health, and physical health. Females in the experimental group experienced improvements in education and mental health and were less likely to engage in risky behaviours. Females in the traditional voucher group experienced improvements in mental health. Males in both treatment groups were more likely than controls to engage in risky behaviours and to experience physical health problems.

Youth who grow up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods fare substantially worse than those who grow up with more affluent neighbours on a wide variety of health and socioeconomic outcomes. A fundamental question in the design of appropriate education, health, and social policies for low income families and communities is the extent to which these correlations reflect the causal impacts of neighbourhoods as opposed to family and individual attributes that are not directly affected by the residential environment.

The research shows that the overall effects on females in the experimental group and the effects on mental health for females in both treatment groups were least likely to be due to sampling variation. Families with female children and families with male children moved to similar neighbourhoods, suggesting that their outcomes differ not because of exposure to different types of neighbourhoods but because male and female youth respond to their environments in different ways.

In sum, the researchers reject the hypothesis that neighbourhoods had only limited effects on these youth. The research identified some important beneficial effects of moving out of high poverty
neighbourhoods on the outcomes of female teenage youth, and that similar benefits did not accrue to males.

The Brookings Institution
Jeffrey Kling

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01/05/2004

Jeffrey Kling and Jeffrey Liebman

research

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Integration of social groups

Young people