Accessing the Best Possible Neighborhood : Family Types and Residential Cross-Segregation

David Pelletier, Université de Montréal

Diverging from most segregation studies, we focus on a narrowly defined form of demographic segregation: segregation by family type. Naturally, since the spatial distribution of married, cohabiting, single-mother, and single-father families does not depend solely on their structure, we must also take into account other aspects of their identity, such as their socioeconomic and ethnocultural characteristics. The combination of these factors creates a cross-segregation that we investigate using 2006 census micro-data for the Montreal metropolitan area. We first use maps and segregation indices to highlight a "raw" form of family type segregation and we then use locational attainment models to evaluate the "net" association of family types with neighborhood income. Even if we find that family type in itself isn't a major predictor of locational attainment, the significant interaction between ethnicity and family type leads us to question family research that does not consider family types’ internal heterogeneity.