title: Neighborhood racial composition and trajectories of child self-rated health: an application of longitudinal propensity scores.
abstract: Children function within multiple socio-environmental contexts including family, school, and neighborhood. The role each of these contexts play in determining well-being is dynamic and changes throughout early-middle childhood. Recent literature on neighborhood context and health suggests that the life-course processes involved in building trajectories of health are not adequately captured in cross-sectional analysis, which has been the empirical focus of much of the research in this area. In this study we use a nationally representative longitudinal sample of approximately 21,400 United States school children derived from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) survey to examine the impact of longitudinal measures of neighborhood racial composition on child self-rated health between kindergarten and 8th grade. We employ two-level multilevel longitudinal logistic regression models with time-varying propensity scores to examine variation in the initial status and trajectories of child self-rated health between kindergarten and 8th grade. Since the ECLS-K tracked child mobility over time, we are able to model the impact of changes in neighborhood racial composition. We find significant differences in initial poor self-rated health by child race, household socioeconomic status and parental marital status but no evidence of a change in trajectory of health over time. Using time-varying propensity scores, we find no effect of neighborhood racial composition on initial health status or health status trajectories.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Department of Geography, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA. Electronic address: Elisabeth.Root@Colorado.edu.
authors.forename: Elisabeth Dowling
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Root
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Department of Geography, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA.
authors.forename: Jamie L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Humphrey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011203:Poverty; D057216:Propensity Score; D044469:Racial Groups; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D057566:Self Report; D014481:United States
keywords: Child self-rated health; Developmental ecologies; Longitudinal; Neighborhood racial composition; Propensity scores; United States