Key Facts:
- Children who moved to a better area earned 30% more than their counterparts
- Children learn and emulate a significant amount from their environment outside the home
- Good suburbs create virtuous cycles, improving a child’s prospects
What’s Going On?
A study out of Harvard has demonstrated how 50-70% of a child’s success is due to where they were raised, not how they were raised. It is not about living in a house with lots of books. It’s about living in an area with lots of bookstores. If you want to raise an inventor, move to an area where there are more inventors.
When growing up you are heavily influenced by your family. Yet, they are not the only influence. Children will always look beyond you, to their local environment to learn and emulate. It is not just their peers at school, although they are very significant. It is the type of conversation that is heard at the local cafe. The people they see commuting with them and the type of people involved in the community.
A Tale of Two Children
Take two children. Both grow up in educated, well off, loving families. The difference is that one grows up in a rougher area of town and the other in a much nicer suburb.
What happens in the nice suburb?
The child in the nicer area is constantly exposed to people who are successful. They consistently see what is possible to accomplish in life. At school, the teachers explicitly and implicitly have higher expectations for the students. The conversation overheard while walking from the bus stop is different. The walk and local environment is nicer and healthier. They are treated like they will be a leader and like they will be successful.
What happens in the rougher suburb?
It is a different tale for the child from the rougher suburb. They are exposed to greater stress due to fears of perceived or actual threats of crime and violence. This type of stress is documented to have negative impacts on cognitive health. They are consistently, implicitly and explicitly told by the world around them that less is expected from them. At school, lower expectations lead to less challenging work, pushing their abilities less. The community is less welcoming and cohesive. In the nicer area the community helps in times of need and provides immense aid in the future in the form of networking.
The bigger picture
It is not difficult to see how these different areas will impact these children’s futures. This is a simple picture. Even so, it demonstrates how the environment exposes children to tons of information that shapes the kind of person they become.
Proof!
The Setup
This is not just a theory but has been proven in experiments. One of the largest experiments conducted was by the US government. In 1994 it began an experiment on 4,500 low income families from around the nation. These families were all very similar in education, health and demographics. A significant portion was moved to low poverty areas, while the rest did not move. The results would compare those who moved to those who did not.
Results
The differences in outcomes from this point on had to be attributed to the area they moved to. Their location was the only real difference between the groups.
The results were significant, but not for everyone. Moving did not have much of an impact on the adults, they were effectively set in their ways. However, it had a big impact on young children (under 13). Because of their move, they were both mentally and physically healthier and by their 20s were earning 30% more than those who did not move. This is despite the fact that their parents were doing just as badly as those parents who had not moved.
This has been supported by ongoing research. For example, it has been found that for every year a child lives in a better suburb their outcomes align increasingly with what is expected from that area at a rate of 4%.
The Takeaway
The determinants of a developing child’s interests, abilities and character are complicated. Where you choose to raise your kids does not solely determine their future. The type of person you are, genetics and a million different things determine the future of your child. However, there is a strong base of research to demonstrate the kind of area where your kid is raised does play an essential role in their future.
