Promoting the positive development of boys in high-poverty neighborhoods: Evidence from four anti-poverty experiments

Emily K. Snell, Nina Castells, Greg Duncan, Lisa Gennetian, Katherine Magnuson, Pamela Morris

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study uses geocoded address data and information about parents' economic behavior and children's development from four random-assignment welfare and anti-poverty experiments conducted during the 1990s. We find that the impacts of these welfare and anti-poverty programs on boys' and girls' developmental outcomes during the transition to early adolescence differ as a function of neighborhood poverty levels. The strongest positive impacts of these programs are among boys who lived in high-poverty neighborhoods at the time their parents enrolled in the studies, with smaller or nonstatistically significant effects for boys in lower-poverty neighborhoods and for girls across all neighborhoods. This research informs our understanding of how neighborhood context and child gender may interact with employment-based policies to affect children's well-being.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)357-374
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Research on Adolescence
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2013

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

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