Cumulative disadvantage during childhood: The association between moving and accumulated neighborhood deprivation over a child’s life course in the Netherlands

Abstract

While the importance of residential moves and neighborhood context for children is widely recognized, few studies examine childhood mobility and neighborhood context together and over time. Using a typology of mobility trajectories based on frequency, age, distance and change in population density, this study analyzes the interrelatedness between mobility trajectories and socioeconomic neighborhood composition throughout childhood. Using full-population register data, we follow children born in the Netherlands in 1999 until age 16. Local spatial autocorrelation analyses reveal concentrations of childhood mobility and neighborhood deprivation in cities. Focusing on children born in metropolitan areas, results indicate that children born in deprived neighborhoods are more likely to experience any move. Short-distance moves are associated with increased exposure and long-distance moves with less exposure to neighborhood deprivation. We argue we need a multidimensional longitudinal perspective to fully capture residential contexts to which children are exposed and enhance knowledge of childhood accumulations of disadvantage.