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Schools, Neighborhoods, and the Reproduction of Inequality over the Life Course

Year: 2024
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Schools and neighborhoods are two dominant institutions in adolescents’ lives, but we know little about whether and how early-life experiences in these contexts affect adult outcomes. The first chapter of this dissertation examines the associations between adolescent school and neighborhood racial composition and the racial composition of individuals’ neighborhoods in adulthood. I find that the racial composition of individuals’ adolescent schools and neighborhoods strongly predict the racial composition of their neighborhoods in adulthood, approximately 20 years later. I also find that individuals who reported having more social interaction in their adolescent neighborhood have stronger associations of their adolescent neighborhood racial context with their adult neighborhood racial context. The associations of the adolescent neighborhood and school contexts with neighborhood racial composition in adulthood weaken with the distance individuals move away from these contexts, but both persist. In the second chapter, I build on the findings of the first chapter by predicting individuals’ trajectories of neighborhood racial and economic composition from adolescence through mid-adulthood. This chapter documents the extent of racial inequality in individuals’ neighborhood racial and economic compositions and assesses the extent to which adolescent neighborhood and school contexts affect subsequent trajectories of neighborhood attainment. Racial inequality in neighborhood attainments is substantial among Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. Between racial groups, I find that there is some convergence in the percent White in individuals’ neighborhoods during the observation period but divergence in the economic composition of their neighborhoods. I also find that neighborhood and school socioeconomic composition, but not racial composition, affect later neighborhood outcomes through processes of cumulative (dis)advantage, where having experienced more resourced adolescent neighborhood and school contexts leads to greater improvement in neighborhood economic conditions with age.The third chapter examines whether there are long-term associations of attending racially segregated schools on individuals’ educational attainment, occupational prestige, and household and personal income in adulthood. Findings from this analysis show that attending schools with more White students is not related to more advantages on these outcomes, for any racial group. I find strong associations of school socioeconomic composition, and the resourced friendships these schools provide, on these outcomes.
DOI: 10.17615/57tn-sw79
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6924939362
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