Neighborhood Effects on Children’s Subjective Deprivation: Are Poor Children’s Perceptions of the Economic Situation in their Home Influenced by their Neighborhood?

Bernadette Huyer-May (), Claudia Schmiedeberg () and Nina Schumann ()
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Bernadette Huyer-May: LMU Munich
Claudia Schmiedeberg: LMU Munich
Nina Schumann: LMU Munich

Child Indicators Research, 2018, vol. 11, issue 1, No 14, 305 pages

Abstract: Abstract Do social comparison effects exacerbate children’s subjective experiences of poverty? Research on relative income effects indicates that reference groups are relevant to an individual’s well-being. While these effects are rather well understood for adults, it is unclear whether children are affected in a similar way. In our analysis, we investigate if children in low-income families perceive the economic situation in their home differently if they live in a wealthy (as compared to a disadvantaged) neighborhood. Drawing on parent and child data from the German Family Panel pairfam (3600 observations from 1691 dyads) enriched with district-level neighborhood data, we analyze the association between neighborhood socioeconomic status and children’s perceptions of the financial situation in their home. Controlling for a number of indicators for the economic situation in the family such as household income, social welfare benefits, and parents’ perception of family finances, we find that children from low-income families feel less deprived if they are living in neighborhoods with a higher socioeconomic status. In contrast, for children from families with an equivalence income above the median regional equivalence income no neighborhood effects are found.

Keywords: Neighborhood effects; Social comparison; Subjective deprivation; Child poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1007/s12187-017-9445-z

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