Assessing the Impact of Neighborhood Conditions on Neurodevelopmental Disorders during Childhood

Anna Maria Santiago, Kristen A. Berg and Joffré Leroux
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Anna Maria Santiago: School of Social Work, College of Social Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Kristen A. Berg: Center for Health Care Research and Policy, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
Joffré Leroux: Department of Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 17, 1-14

Abstract: Nearly three out of ten neurodevelopmental disabilities in the United States have been linked to environmental conditions, prompting emerging lines of research examining the role of the neighborhood on children’s developmental outcomes. Utilizing data from a natural experiment in Denver, this study quantifies the impact of exposure to varied neighborhood contexts on the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders over the course of childhood. Our analysis is based upon retrospective child, caregiver, household and neighborhood data derived from the Denver Child Study for a sample of approximately 590 Latino and African American children and youth whose families were quasi-randomly assigned to subsidized housing operated by the Denver (CO) Housing Authority during part of their childhood. We employed binary response models with endogenous explanatory variables, estimated using instrumental variables (IV) probit and average marginal effects to identify predictors of a neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosis during childhood. We found that multiple dimensions of neighborhood context—especially neighborhood socioeconomic status, older housing stock, residential instability and prevalence of neurological hazards in the ambient air—strongly and robustly predicted the diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disorder during childhood.

Keywords: neurodevelopmental disorders; neighborhood effects; natural experiments; IV probit estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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