Does Neighborhood Income Affect Teens' Mental Health? WEDNESDAY,
Oct. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Moving from an area with a high
poverty level to an area with less poverty benefits the mental
health of some teen girls, a new study contends. Researchers
looked at low-income families in public housing in five U.S.
cities -- Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York
-- between 1994 and 1997. The families were randomly selected to
remain in public housing (high-poverty areas) or to receive
government-funded rental subsidies to move into private
apartments (low-poverty areas). The study authors analyzed the
mental health of more than 2,800 children, aged 12 to 19, in
these families for between four and seven years. "Extensive
observational evidence indicates that youth in high-poverty
neighborhoods exhibit poor mental health, although not all
children may be affected similarly," according to background
information in the study by Theresa Osypuk, of Northeastern
University in Boston, and colleagues. "Racial/