Race, Gender and Residence: The Influence of Family Structure and Children on Residential Segregation

Samantha Friedman, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)
Samuel Garrow, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)

Today’s youth are increasingly comprised of racial and ethnic minorities, and the family types within which these children reside vary considerably by race/ethnicity. Surprisingly, little is known about the residential patterns of different minority family types with and without children, despite the fact that housing discrimination against families and by sex comprises a sizeable share of complaints made to HUD. This study seeks to document the residential segregation of minority families with and without children, overall and by family type, relative to all white households. Preliminary results indicate that family structure has a larger impact on the segregation of minority families from whites than the presence of children. However, the results also show that the effect of the presence of children differs by family structure and race/ethnicity. These initial findings suggest that more attention should be paid to the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender in the study of residential segregation.