Racial residential segregation has received considerable attention from social scientists who, in general, have found that African Americans, particularly those in large, northeastern and midwestern metropolitan areas have been highly segregated from whites since at least the beginning of the Great Migration. This analysis combines research on racial residential segregation with research about residential segregation based on social class in order to study the segregation of middle‐class blacks from middle‐class whites. By using Census data that incorporate consistent geographic definitions of Census tracts in 50 U.S. metropolitan areas from 1970 to 1990, I assess change in the levels of residential segregation between middle‐class blacks and middle‐class whites. The index of dissimilarity indicates that while there was a decrease in the segregation of middle‐class blacks from middle‐class whites between 1970 and 1990, in many metropolitan areas this segregation remained high through 1990. The analysis also shows that middle‐class blacks lived in neighborhoods, on average, with considerably more poverty, more boarded‐up homes, more female‐headed households, and fewer college graduates than neighborhoods inhabited by middle‐class whites. Overall, the results suggest that, for the most part, these groups remain residentially separated in U.S. metropolitan areas.
Objective. This analysis extends the residential attainment literature by examining the neighborhood racial composition of middle-class blacks and whites while controlling for residential preferences. Methods. Using the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality and 1990 Census data, the spatial assimilation and place stratification theories of locational attainment are tested. Results. As in previous research, support is shown for both theories; for blacks, stronger human capital characteristics translate into neighborhoods that are less racially segregated. However, even when middle-class blacks prefer to live in integrated neighborhoods, on average, they live in neighborhoods that are about 60 percent black and 30 percent white, while middle-class whites who prefer to live in integrated neighborhoods reside in neighborhoods that, on average, are 10 percent black and 85 percent white. Conclusions. Although incorporating residential preferences into models that predict neighborhood racial composition proves important, the relative inability of middleclass blacks to implement their preferences indicates powerful social forces that maintain ''American apartheid.'' There is debate among scholars about the role of residential preferences in maintaining residential segregation and stratification. On the one hand, certain scholars contend that it is the residential preferences of whites and blacks (as well as members of other racial and ethnic groups) that maintain the segregated environments of American metropolitan areas (e.g.,
This research examined the function of future self-continuity and its potential downstream consequences for academic performance through relations with other temporal psychological factors and self-control. We also addressed the influence of cultural factors by testing whether these relations differed by college generation status. Undergraduate students enrolled at a large public university participated in two studies (Study 1: N = 119, M = 20.55, 56.4% women; Study 2: N = 403, M = 19.83, 58.3% women) in which they completed measures of temporal psychological factors and psychological resources. In Study 2, we also obtained academic records to link responses to academic performance. Future self-continuity predicted subsequent academic performance and was related positively to future focus, negatively to present focus, and positively to self-control. Additionally, the relation between future focus and self-control was stronger for continuing-generation college students than first-generation college students. Future self-continuity plays a pivotal role in academic contexts. Findings suggest that it may have positive downstream consequences on academic achievement by directing attention away from the present and toward the future, which promotes self-control. Further, the strategy of focusing on the future may be effective in promoting self-control only for certain cultural groups.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.