264182 Neighborhood poverty trajectories over 4 decades in California

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Jina Jun, MA , School of Social Work, University of Texas, Austin, TX
Catherine Cubbin, PhD , School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Background: Neighborhood poverty has been found to have independent effects on a wide range of health indicators. However, measuring neighborhood poverty only at one point in time does not capture the dynamic nature of neighborhoods (e.g., gentrification, decline, long-term poverty) which may have important implications for health. The purpose of this study is to examine growth trajectories of neighborhood poverty in California using latent class growth analysis (LCGM).

Methods: Data are from the Neighborhood Change Database and the 2005-2009 American Community Survey at the census tract level, normalized to census 2000 boundaries. Tract-level poverty rates were calculated as the proportion of residents with income below the federal poverty level. LCGM was used to define poverty trajectories at the tract level. To validate classes, multinomial logistic regression was used to examine differences in neighborhood SES (education, unemployment), racial/ethnic composition (white, black, Hispanic/Latino), family structure (single-headed household with children), and housing characteristics (renters) between latent classes.

Results: The LCGM results indicated three distinct poverty trajectories: long-term concentrated affluence (N= 4,602), long-term low/moderate poverty (N=1,845), and long-term concentrated poverty (N=602). Compared with neighborhoods in the other two classes, neighborhoods in the long-term concentrated poverty class had higher rates of (1) unemployment, (2) blacks and Hispanics/Latinos, (3) single-headed households with children, (4) and renters; and had lower education levels.

Implication: These results will guide researchers on measuring neighborhood poverty dynamically in studies of neighborhood environments and health.

Learning Areas:
Epidemiology
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Identify the growth trajectories of neighborhood poverty in California. Describe dynamic nature of neighborhoods (e.g., gentrification, decline, long-term poverty) which may have important implications for health.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, School of Social Work. I have interests in examining impacts of neighborhood poverty on health behaviors of women. I published papers in several peer-reviewed journals.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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