اختلاف نژادی در میان کودکان آمریکایی در فقر: ارزیابی مجدد اهمیت محله ای

Census data have long indicated that black and Hispanic children in the United States are approximately two to three times more likely than white children to fall below the official poverty line. Yet this well established statistic masks a much higher differential in the incidence of ecological poverty between white and nonwhite children. This paper examines the extent of this racial/ethnic divide through an alternative and new metric of childhood neighborhood poverty. Data from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census are used to estimate the percentage of white, black, and Hispanic children residing in high childhood poverty neighborhoods. Our results indicate that black children are up to 14 times more likely to live in a high childhood poverty neighborhood when compared to their white counterparts. In addition, for black children living below the poverty line, the majority will experience the double disadvantage of residing in a poor minority childhood neighborhood as well. Findings for Hispanic children are similar to those for black children, albeit slightly less pronounced.

The United States leads the developed world in both the extent and depth of its poverty (Smeeding, 2005). More specifically, the rates of childhood poverty in America far surpass those for children in virtually all other Western industrialized countries (Rainwater and Smeeding, 2003, UNICEF, 2005 and Weinshenker and Heuveline, 2008). This is particularly troubling because poverty during the childhood years is associated with a host of health, economic, and social problems later in life. These include a greater likelihood of impaired physical and mental growth, lower academic achievement, and a greater propensity towards psychological and social maladjustment (Duncan and Brooks-Gunn, 1997, Duncan and Brooks-Gunn, 1997 and Rank, 2004). One study estimated that the cost of U.S. childhood poverty stood at approximately 500 billion dollars a year, resulting from increased health care costs, loss of economic productivity, and an increase in crime associated with poverty (Holzer, Schanzenbach, Duncan, & Ludwig, 2007).