For a teenager, moving—even if it’s to a higher-income neighborhood—is linked to a decrease in the likelihood of graduating from high school, an analysis has found.
Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis drew on data from a national study that followed 7th to 12th graders from the mid-1990s into young adulthood. They found that moving at least once during a 12-month period was associated with a 50 percent drop in the likelihood of getting a high school diploma by age 25—regardless of whether the students were moving to neighborhoods that were poorer or less poor than where they started.
The study was published last month in the journal Social Science Research.
