Moving homes is tough for kids:
The New York Times recentlysummarized new research on how kids are affected by moving. With this long, dragged out recession, the disruptions caused by the Gulf Oil disaster, and the foreclose crisis, hundreds of thousands of kids are going to be packing boxes and finding new homes. That won't make it any easier.
This is a touchy subject for me. I moved ten times during the first 25 years of mymarriage. My oldest son moved five times before college (a touchy, touchy subject), and my youngest has moved three.
Most Professors have virtually no control over where they work - there are a limited number of jobs in very specific topics and many more well qualified PhDs than academic positions. Required moves is one of the many stresses in the lives of academics and many other professions.
And then there's the effect on their kids.
The bad news. As the new study published in the Journal of Social and PersonalityPsychology documents, frequent moves are tough on kids and disrupt important friendships. These effects are most problematic for kids who are introverted and those whose personalities tend toward anxiety and inflexibility.
Specifically, adults who moved frequently as kids have fewer high quality relationships and tend to score lower on well-being and life satisfaction. Fortunately, the results - like all findings in psychology - are more nuanced than that.
One major reason that kids are negatively affected by moves is that moves are often precipitated by problems - a divorce, job loss - that are tough on the family. Or the family moves because one parent's job requires it, but this mean the other parent (usually mom) loses theirs.
When parents are stressed and upset (and trust me, moving is always stressful) their parenting suffers and the kids always, always always notice.
Moves are also hardest on kids in the midst of other transitions - like puberty and school changes. Middle school seems to be the toughest time to make a transition.
Please read below related article on the same issue:
The period when the mind is most sensitive to moving house.
Moving home during childhood increases the chances of mental health problems later on, new research finds.
The most sensitive period for moving home was between the ages of 12 and 14.
Those that moved house at this age had the highest increased risk of a variety of negative outcomes.
Overall, though, the more home moves a child experienced, the greater their chances of experiencing problems later on.
The problems caused by moving were not linked to income.
In other words: it wasn’t just poorer children who suffered from frequent moves, so did the affluent.
The researchers grouped the negative outcomes into three categories:
- Mental illness: any psychiatric diagnosis, such as depression and anxiety. Also including substance misuse.
- Violence: including suicide and criminality
- Death: dying at an earlier age than expected.
Dr. Roger T. Webb, who led the research, said:
“Childhood residential mobility is associated with multiple long-term adverse outcomes.
Although frequent residential mobility could be a marker for familial psychosocial difficulties, the elevated risks were observed across the socioeconomic spectrum, and mobility may be intrinsically harmful.
Health and social services, schools, and other public agencies should be vigilant of the psychological needs of relocated adolescents, including those from affluent as well as deprived families.”
For the study, scientists used data about every child born in Denmark between 1971 and 1997.
Dr Webb explained:
“Owing to its uniquely complete and accurate registration of all residential changes in its population, Denmark is the only country where it is currently possible to conduct such a comprehensive national investigation of childhood residential mobility and risk of adverse outcomes in later life.”
The research found that 37% of children had moved home at least once before their 15th birthday.
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