Residential Mobility and Prosocial Development Within a Single City

Neighborhood social dynamics have been shown to impact behavioral development in residents, including levels of prosociality
(i.e. positive social behavior). This study explores whether residential moves to neighborhoods with different social dynamics
can influence further prosocial development. Prosociality, five domains of social support, and residential location were tracked
between 2006 and 2009 in 397 adolescents across a small city in upstate New York. Analysis compared the role of the different
forms of social support in prosocial development for movers versus non-movers. The effects of one’s neighborhood of residence
at Time 2 were also compared between movers and non-movers. Prosocial development in these two groups responded similarly
to all forms of social support, including from neighbors. Movers experienced a greater increase in prosociality the more residentially
stable the adolescent population of their new neighborhood of residence. Such neighborhood characteristics were not influential
in the prosocial development of non-movers.