The most significant work has been identifying and attaching census tract codes to each mother and child case across the entire time span of the study. Numerous resources were employed to code as many cases as possible in order to minimize problems of missing data. Attaching these census tracts to the file is our first step in constructing measures of neighborhood quality and mobility. We seek a better understanding of the residential life trajectories of the mothers and children. Specifically, we are interested in determining the degree to which residential mobility results from educational, occupational, and income mobility; does: Does the quality of residential life improve with improvements in education, occupation, and income status over timed? Preliminary reviews of the qualitative data collected in 1996-97 - intensive interviews with 22 mothers and 12 children - suggests that other factors related to family and neighborhood attachment may also contribute significantly to residential mobility or immobility.

The content of the 34 intensive interviews has been carefully coded, using text analysis software (NUD*IST), to capture respondent instances of residential and social mobility, explanations for mobility or immobility, perceived effects of family and neighborhood on mobility, and attitudes toward a variety of mobility support issues. The results of this coding are currently being analyzed and will be reported separate from and in tandem with the results of the survey data analyses.

-Katrina McDonald