3-117 - Understanding Effects of Residential, School, and Neighborhood Instability on Children and Youth

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The recent economic and housing crises, along with growing income disparities, have brought renewed attention to the prevalence of instabilities in the primary context in which children live. Nearly 1 in 8 Americans move to a new home each year, with higher rates among young children and young adults, providing a significant source of instability. Transitions in schools and neighborhood contexts are common as well. As such, residential, school, and neighborhood moves represent a significant source of instability for children and families, with the potential for notable disruptions to children’s well-being. Indeed, prior research suggests detrimental effects of instability on children’s well-being, yet notable gaps remain in terms of delineating how the type, timing, and intensity of instability matter most for children and families. This symposium tackles the issue of instability through multiple lenses, using a diversity of local and national longitudinal datasets to carefully track instabilities in children’s home, school, and neighborhood contexts and to delineate how such experiences may affect children’s functioning. Each paper takes a unique perspective, focusing on: the causes and consequences of residential moves among renters; links between shifts in neighborhood socioeconomic resources and youth educational outcomes; and associations between residential and school mobility and children’s cognitive and behavioral skills, with particular attention to the timing and intensity of mobility. Together, these papers share the common theme of addressing instability in proximal contexts, while adding new empirical evidence regarding when, for whom, and how such instability may be most important for children’s development.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chair

• Rebekah Levine Levine Coley, Boston College

Individual Presentations

• Forced Relocation and Residential Instability among Urban Renters - Matthew Desmond, Harvard University; Presenting Author: Carl Gershenson, Harvard University; Barbara Kiviat, Harvard University

• Assessing the Benefits of a Rising Tide: Educational Attainment - Presenting Author: William Johnston, Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Residential Mobility and Children’s Cognitive and Behavioral Skills: - Rebekah Levine Levine Coley, Boston College; Presenting Author: Melissa Kull, Boston College; Alicia Doyle Lynch, Boston College

• Residential and school instability: joint or independent associations? - Presenting Author: Sara Anderson, Georgetown University; Tama Leventhal, Tufts University