Fourth, for white and Latina women,

Fourth, for white and Latina women, upward mobility appeared to eliminate the effects of early- life exposure to neighbourhood poverty.Upwardly mobile white and Latina women had a PTB rates comparable to their counterparts with life- course residence in high- opportunity neighbourhoods. However, upward mobility did not afford the same protection for African- American women. In contrast to the study by Collins and colleagues, 5 Pearl and colleagues found that upwardly mobile African- American women had birth outcomes comparable to their downwardly mobile counterparts, as well as African- American women with life- course exposure to neighbourhood poverty. This could suggest that for African- American women, early- life programming effects from neighbourhood poverty overpowered neighbourhood opportunity as an adult. Alternatively, the experience of upward socioeconomic mobility might be qualitatively different for African- American women. 2 As the authors surmised, black women moving into high-opportunity neighbourhoods may encounter additional challenges,such as “disruption of extended kinship networks or increased racial discrimination,” 8 which could detract from the benefits of residence in high- opportunity neighbourhoods.