Beyond Forced Moves: Examining Anticipatory Stress Around Housing Loss and the Role of Social Support

• In Event: 20216 - Housing Insecurity Among Low-Income Households

Abstract

An extensive literature examines how displacement—or being forced to move involuntarily—erodes family wellbeing. However, scholars know less about how displacement pressures affect families, even prior to displacement occurring. This gap is surprising given prevailing evidence suggesting that displacement pressures occur much more frequently than displacement events. We address this gap by examining an understudied pathway through which the threat of displacement shapes family wellbeing: by exposing households to anticipatory stress around housing loss. Specifically, we use survey data from the LA Barometer, a longitudinal survey that is representative of Los Angeles County residents (n=1,303), to examine the prevalence of anticipatory housing loss stress, the role of social support in shielding against anticipatory stress, and how moving into a doubled-up home does or does not shield against anticipatory stress. We find that renters, families with children, first-generation immigrants, and lower income households are all more vulnerable to anticipatory housing loss stress. We also find that the receipt of instrumental support from friends and family—but not from neighbors—significantly reduces anticipatory housing loss stress; however, such support does not mediate the effects of respondent’s social class characteristics. Finally, we find that moving into a doubled-up household with family—but not doubling-up with non-relatives or with family and non-relatives—is a key protective factor against anticipatory housing loss stress. We expect these findings to be of broad interest to scholars and practitioners concerned with displacement. Specifically, the stress process model draws attention to the health effects of anticipatory stressors, which helps to address urban sociology’s mobility bias. The stress process model also draws analytical attention to coping resources, including supportive social networks and personal resources. Our findings regarding the mixed effects of coping resources can help explain the differential health impacts of displacement pressures and displacement itself on families.

Authors

• Steven Edward Schmidt, University of Southern California

• Lora A. Phillips, Western University