| This research examines the relationship between the social mix of a public housing development and community, certain social background characteristics and patterns of activity of lower status households and their Grade 7 and 8 children's educational response (educational aspirations and grades).;Socio-ecological theory takes into account micro, meso and macro aspects of the children's environments in explaining influences on educational response. Social background characteristics of the children's ecology include educational background, family and ethnic status, and gender.;When the influence of social mix on educational response is examined, the results are differentiated by parent's social status. In accordance with the 'Structural Proximity Effect', (Porter et al., 1982) in high mix communities, more children at the upper end of the lower status continuum have higher educational aspirations. The extent of participation in education-oriented and education-inhibiting activities are important aspects of the ecology influencing educational response. Community characteristics such as public housing development size, dwelling types and social mix are also examined for their not so clear relationships to educational response.;A sample of 205 children and 107 parents, drawn from the 1981 Child in the City Study of Grade 7 and 8 children and families in public housing is used to test the social mix and socio-ecological hypotheses.;The social welfare link is drawn between social housing policy which has as its aim the income mixing of residents, social mix, and lower status children's educational response. The findings suggest that there are few systematic and significant variations in children's educational response between high and low mix public housing projects and communities. When gender, occupational status, family status, public housing size and dwelling type, and participation in education-oriented and education-inhibiting activities are taken into account, we find some variations in response. However, with the exception of the Structural Proximity Effect and townhouse projects in low mix communities, relationships among variables are often marginal and insignificant making inferences about social mix effects largely supportive of a null hypothesis. |
