Residential Mobility and Children’s Well-Being

David Murphey, Ph.D.Kristin A. Moore, Ph.D.

Tawana Bandy

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Presented to the International Society for Child Indicators, Biannual MeetingYork, England

July 27-29, 2011

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Goals:

• Examine the prevalence and frequency of residential moves among U.S. children

• Analyze the association of frequent moves with several measures of child well-being, controlling for other demographic variables

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Residential moves are common among U.S. households with children

• The recent housing crisis has increased rates of residential discontinuity, prompting concerns about children’s welfare

• In 2010, nearly 10 million children (about 1 in 7, ages 1-17) changed residence; nearly three-quarters of these were moves within the same county

• However, we know less about children’s experience of multiple moves

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Residential Mobility: A Negative or Positive Influence on Well-Being?

• Moving represents a source of (negative) turbulence in a child’s life, disrupting multiple contexts for development, as well as contributing to parental stress

• A move can also represent a positive change, if it is associated with improved opportunity or access to more resources, or with leaving a harmful environment

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Moving is confounded with many family-level characteristics

• Younger families move more often• Poorer families move more often• Adult-couple instability may prompt moves• The older the child, the greater the likelihood he/she has

“ever” moved

• Thus, researchers must control for these and other “endogenous” variables

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Younger children may be particularly vulnerable to frequent residential disruption

• Rapid development in multiple domains (social, emotional, cognitive)

• Dependence of their well-being on parents’ own coping abilities

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However, older children may also be at risk, particularly when moves involve changing schools

• Social networks are an important part of adolescent well-being

• These extend beyond school, but school is a primary setting, not only socially, but for academic achievement

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The present study

• Uses data from the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health, a telephone survey designed to yield samples representative of the U.S. and each of the states.– Primary focus is health, but includes measures of a

number of child well-being constructs, and developmental contexts

– Parent is reporter on a single focal child– National sample size is approximately 90,000– Administered in 2003, 2007, and 2011

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Descriptive Findings: Many children experience multiple moves

• Among 0- to 5-year-olds, although more than half have had no moves, more than one in four have moved 3 or more times, and nearly one in ten have moved 5 or more times.

• By the time they are 12 to 17 years old, a majority (61 percent) of children have moved 5 or more times.

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Frequency of Moves, by Age Group Total Weighted Sample

No moves 1 or 2 moves 3 or 4 moves 5 or more moves

52%

30%

18%

9%

26%

36% 38%

29%

22%

34%

45%

62%

Ages 0-5Ages 6-11Ages 12-17

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Multivariate analysis:

• Stratify sample by age group: 0-5, 6-11, and 12-17 • Within each group, statistically control for:– Family income (poor, near-poor, not poor)– Mother’s level of education (high school only, some

college, 4-year college degree or higher)– Race/ethnicity (white, African-American, Hispanic, other)– Family structure (2 biological or adoptive parents vs.

other)

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Analysis (continued)

• Within each age group, and using single year of age as a covariate, use statistical regression to examine the independent contribution of frequent mobility (defined as 5+ moves) to:– Global health rating (“excellent” or “very good”)– Has received treatment/counseling from a mental health professional,

past 12 months– Problems with school, past 12 months (ages 6-11 and 12-17 only)

– “Externalizing” behavior problems composite (ages 6-11 and 12-17 only)

– “Internalizing” behavior problems composite (ages 6-11 and 12-17 only)

– School engagement composite (ages 6-11 and 12-17 only)

– Participation in after-school activities (ages 12-17 only)

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Multivariate results: Ages 0-5

• No child outcomes significantly associated with frequent moves

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Multivariate results: Ages 6-11

• Children who have moved frequently are more likely than others to have received mental health treatment/counseling

• Frequent movers more likely to have “externalizing” behavior problems (diagnosed conduct problems, and/or diagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)

• No significant associations with global health, “internalizing” behavior problems, school problems, or school engagement

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Children Ages 6-11

7.7% 7.7%

12.5% 12.9%

Full SampleFrequent Movers

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Multivariate results: Ages 12-17

• Frequent movers are more likely than others to have received mental health treatment/counseling

• Frequent movers are more likely than others to have “externalizing” behavior problems (diagnosed conduct problems, and/or diagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)

• Frequent movers are more likely than others to have had the school contact the family to report problems

• No significant associations with global health, “internalizing” behavior problems, school engagement, out-of-school activities

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Children Ages 12-17

Receive

d Mental

Health Treatm

ent

Externali

zing B

ehaviors

School P

roblems

15.1% 15.1% 14.9%

24.0% 24.0% 23.9%

Full SampleFrequent Movers

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Conclusions

• Frequent moving had no significant positive associations with well-being

• Negative findings were limited to school-age children• Negative findings were in the psycho-social domain, not in

physical health• There is some evidence to link frequent moving to reported

problems with school, but not to school engagement

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Limitations of the present study

• Cannot make causal attributions• No measure of the distance of moves• No measure of what motivated moves• Single point in time; no measures of child’s adjustment over

time• Future work could examine:– Possible differences by child-gender – Possible mediator/moderator role for how parents cope

with moves• A good indicator?

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