Early impacts of moving from poor to middle-class neighborhoods on low-income youth

This study reports early impacts on youth's outcomes from the Yonkers Project, a quasi-experimental study in which low-income Black and Latino families who resided in economically and racially segregated neighborhoods were selected via lottery to relocate to middle-class, primarily White neighborhoods. Youth 8-18 years old who moved (n = 147) as well as a demographically similar group of youth who remained in the original neighborhoods (n = 114) responded to surveys focusing on a range of outcomes administered approximately 2 years following relocation. Results of multiple regression analyses revealed that 8-18-year-old youth who moved to middle-income neighborhoods experienced less victimization, disorder, and access to illegal substances relative to those who remained in high-poverty neighborhoods. Among 8-9-year-old youth, those who moved from high- to low-poverty neighborhoods reported fewer behavior and family relationship problems and less delinquency than their counterparts who did not move. A reversal of this trend was found among older youth, 16-18 years of age, with mover youth experiencing more problems relative to stayer youth. Few program effects were found for 10-15-year-old youth. Residential moves of this sort may be most effective for families with younger children.