Moving for the Kids: Examining the Influence of Children on Residential Segregation

Kimberly Goyette, Temple University
John Iceland, Pennsylvania State University
Elliot Weininger, State University of New York at Brockport

White households with children are the least likely of all household types to be living in integrated neighborhoods, yet few researchers have questioned whether children themselves influence residential decision making, or whether these patterns are due to other life course factors, changing socioeconomic circumstances, or unobserved heterogeneity related to having children. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find that white households with children - and especially with young children - are more likely to move if the percentage of black residents in their neighborhoods is at or above the median for our sample than those that do not have children. These results suggest that white families with children, particularly young children, are more sensitive to the percentage of black residents in their neighborhoods than are white families without children.