THE PROMISES AND PITFALLS OF 21ST CENTURY SUBURBIA

Abstract

The United States’ suburbs have evolved from being places predominately home to white, middle-class two-person family to being the most diverse and integrated places in the United States, immigrant destinations, and home to the most people below the federal poverty level. Despite this, there has been limited quantitative research about how individuals and families fare. Using a decade of data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, I focus on this suburban transformation. Chapter 1 examines residential mobility with an emphasis on city-to-city movers and city-to-suburb movers and how differences vary by race and ethnicity. Neighborhood outcomes are chosen to mirror family preferences. I find that for mothers who move to the suburbs, there are substantial and significant improvements from city-origin neighborhoods, especially for Black mothers. However, moves to the suburbs are only a small portion of movers. Chapter 2 examines the neighborhood quality bar to marriage. Prior research about the economic barrier for marriage uses mostly monetary resources. I extend this idea to neighborhood resources. I find in the immediate years after a focal child’s birth, passing a neighborhood bar is associated with increased marriage likelihood above and beyond other economic, relationship, and demographic characteristics. Chapter 3 shifts to another institution that shapes child outcomes: schools. Comparing urban and suburban schools, I look at whether an adolescent is academically on track and is in honors courses. This chapter found that while students do attend better schools in the suburbs, the only students who see significant individual academic differences are girls and white students. This suggests that suburban schools, while better resourced on average, remain sites of inequality and are not equalizers. In Chapter 4, I examine how suburban exposure before age 9 relates to mental health and behavior at age 15. Person and neighborhood heterogeneity is explored. I find that adolescents who are girls or are Black, experience better mental health outcomes from suburban exposure. When examining the types of suburbs that are associated with positive outcomes, suburbs that melting pots or Black as well as inner ring suburbs are associated with better outcomes.