This study uses novel administrative data to characterize the institutional resources, indicators of social organization, and structural determinants of development for the neighborhoods surrounding 195 preschools across nine U.S. cities. Using latent profile analysis, preschool neighborhoods were grouped into four profiles reflecting different combinations of community characteristics. These neighborhood profiles predicted low-income preschoolers’ (N = 1,230; M age = 4.18 years) language/literacy, executive function, and approaches to learning at the end of the 2009 or 2010 academic year, with particularly positive outcomes in communities characterized by high physical disorder and unaffordability, as well as in those marked by high community resources and physical order and low residential mobility. Findings highlight the multidimensional realities of low-income children’s preschool community environments and offer new directions for characterizing educational contexts. (author abstract)
Description:
Resource Type:
Reports & Papers
Funder(s):
Country:
United States
State(s):
California;
Connecticut;
Illinois;
New York;
North Carolina;
Ohio;
Rhode Island;
Tennessee