Background
In the late 1990s, 4,600 families living in high-poverty public housing in five U.S. cities enrolled in the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) housing mobility experiment. Those assigned to the experimental voucher group were offered the opportunity to move to a low poverty area and received housing counseling. Research partners at the University of Chicago and Harvard University conducted a 10-year follow up survey of all MTO enrollees to assess the long term results of the experiment.
In concert with this effort, we proposed a qualitative study, "Moving to Opportunity Qualitative 10-Year Follow Up" (MTOQ10)" in Baltimore, one MTO site, that focused on MTO youth in the transition to early adulthood.
Methodology
We drew a random subsample of 200 experimental and control group households with youth aged 15-24. In line with past research, conversations with youth focused on education, employment, risk behavior, family formation, and mental health. Gender differences were also a central focus, as the MTO interim survey showed that teenage girls seemed to benefit from the experiment, while boys were somewhat worse off as a result. Close coordination with the survey team also allowed us to explore unanticipated youth impacts the survey analysis reveals.
The in-depth nature of our interviews with youth allowed us to explore the rich array of social processes and contextual factors that may underlie divergent outcomes between treatment and control group youth. Qualitative studies linked to surveys have proved useful in shedding light on some of the processes behind the survey-based experimental impacts.
Goal
The goal of our study is to provide further insight into how assisted residential mobility and the resulting variation in neighborhood characteristics might help or hinder youth in the transition to adulthood.
Research Questions
1. What is the process by which MTO youth manage their educational careers, including high school completion (or GED acquisition) and enrollment in and completion of post secondary education? How does this vary by treatment group and gender? What can account for other variation across young people in their ability to manage their educational trajectories?
2. What is the process by which MTO youth manage the transition to employment and acquire experience and skills? How does this vary by treatment group and gender? What can account for other variation across young people in their success in managing this transition?
3. What is the process by which MTO youth manage transitions into partner and parenting roles? How does this vary by treatment group and gender? What can account for other variation across young people in their ability to avoid or successfully navigate these transitions?
4. What is the process by which MTO youth transition out of, into, or continue to avoid risk behaviors, including those that lead to incarceration and/or physical and emotional harm? How does this vary by treatment group and gender? What can account for other variation across young people in their ability to transition out of, into, or avoid risk behaviors?
5. In the course of these transitions and as they overlap with one another, what trajectories are most closely associated with advantageous mental health outcomes? How does this vary by treatment group and gender? What other factors may account for other variation across young people in their mental health outcomes?
Media Coverage
New York Times (2/2017) (5/2016)
Washington Post (8/2019) (Op-Ed) (4/2016)
Baltimore Sun (6/2020) (5/2019) (5/2018) (7/2016) (6/2016)
The Atlantic (10/2016) (4/2016)
WYPR Maryland Morning with Tom Hall
The Atlantic – "Why Do Some Poor Kids Thrive?"
The New York Times – "When Will the Democrats Ever Face an African-American Revolt?"
Publications
DeLuca, Stefanie. "Dear Baltimore Youth: We See Your Incredible Promise. We Will Not Give Up On You." The Century Foundation. https://tcf.org/content/commentary/dear-baltimore-youth-we-see-your-inc….
DeLuca, Stefanie, Susan Clampet-Lundquist and Kathryn Edin. 2016. Coming of Age in the Other America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Pollack Craig, Blackford Amanda, Du Shawn, DeLuca Stefanie, Thornton Rachel, Herring Brad. 2019. “Association of receipt of a housing voucher with subsequent hospital utilization and spending.” Journal of the American Medical Association 322: 2215-2124. PMCID: PMC6902168
Condliffe, Barbara, Melody Boyd and Stefanie DeLuca. 2015. “Stuck in School: How School Choice Policies Interact with Social Context to Shape Inner City Students’ Educational Careers.” Teachers College Record 117: 1-36.
Darrah, Jennifer and Stefanie DeLuca. 2014. “‘Living Here Changed My Whole Perspective’: How Escaping Inner City Poverty Shapes Neighborhood and Housing Choice.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 33: 350-384.
DeLuca, Stefanie, Philip Garboden and Peter Rosenblatt*. 2013. “Segregating Shelter: How Housing Policies Shape the Residential Locations of Low Income Minority Families.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 647:268-299.
Gasper, Joseph, Stefanie DeLuca and Angela Estacion. 2012. “Switching High Schools: Reconsidering the Relationship between School Mobility and Dropout” American Educational Research Journal 49: 487-519.
Bozick, Robert and Stefanie DeLuca. 2011. “Not Making the Transition to College: School, Work, and Opportunities in the Lives of American Youth.” Social Science Research 40: 1249-1262.
Gasper, Joseph, Stefanie DeLuca and Angela Estacion. 2010. “Coming and Going: The Effects of Residential and School Mobility on Delinquency.” Social Science Research 39: 459-476.
DeLuca, Stefanie and Peter Rosenblatt. 2010. “Does Moving To Better Neighborhoods Lead to Better Schooling Opportunities? Parental School Choice in an Experimental Housing Voucher Program.” Teachers College Record 112 (5) 1441-1489.
Former Researchers
- Paige Ackman
- Jochebed Cadet
- Jamie Chan
- Olivia Cigarroa
- Andrew Gray
- Kiara Nerenberg
- Nick Papageorge
- Susan Clampet-Lundquist
- Courtney Colwell
- Peter Rosenblatt
- Lauren Ricci
- Maddie Staczek
- Siri Warkentien