Moving to opportunity: An experimental study of neighborhood effects on mental health

Objectives. The health consequences of neighborhood poverty are a public health problem. Data were obtained to examine links between neighborhood residence and men-tal health outcomes. Methods. Moving to Opportunity was a randomized, controlled trial in which families from public housing in high-poverty neighborhoods were moved into private housing in near-poor or nonpoor neighborhoods, with a subset remaining in public housing. At the 3-year follow-up of the New York site, 550 families were reinterviewed. Results. Parents who moved to low-poverty neighborhoods reported significantly less distress than parents who remained in high-poverty neighborhoods. Boys who moved to less poor neighborhoods reported significantly fewer anxious/depressive and de-pendency problems than did boys who stayed in public housing. Conclusions. This study provides experimental evidence of neighborhood income ef-fects on mental health. (Am J Public Health. 2003;93:1576–1582