FAMILIES AND NEIGHBORS AS SOURCES OF DISADVANTAGE IN THE SCHOOLING DECISIONS OF WHITE AND BLACK-ADOLESCENTS

The effects of neighborhood and family characteristics on completed sc hooling are estimated with nationally representative longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Consistent with theories of beneficial institutions and collective socialization, the presence of affluent neighbors appears to confer benefits on white males and on bo th white and black females, even after family-level factors such as pa rental income, maternal education, and family structure have been cont rolled for. Other neighborhood effects were more specialized but did n ot, in general, support the hypothesis that economically disadvantaged adolescents were especially vulnerable to either the positive or nega tive influences of neighborhoods. The racial composition of neighborho ods appeared to affect black but not white children. Family-level char acteristics such as maternal education and family income were consiste ntly important across all race and sex subgroups and were more powerfu l than any of the neighborhood characteristics.