3-203 - Exploring the Effects of Mobility on Children’s Adjustment Across Contexts

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Highly mobile children are often at high risk of behavioral and socioemotional problems as a result of experiencing multiple risk factors including chronic poverty, exposure to stressful and negative life events, unemployed and or poorly educated parents, poor health, poor parenting behaviors, school disruptions, lack of social support and neighborhood violence (Masten, 2014). The combination of high mobility and elevated numbers of risks can result in increased vulnerability to maladjustment, risky behaviors, and poor socioemotional development. The papers in this symposium explore the effects of mobility and residential instability on the adjustment of children across three different contexts: children in non-parental care, homeless children, and children in migrant farmworker families. The first paper uses data from the Head Start Impact Study to examine the relation between residential mobility and externalizing behaviors in kindergarten for children living in non-parental care, and whether high quality teacher-child relationships moderate this association. The second paper uses data from the Philadelphia Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to estimate the prevalence of youth homelessness and risk for problems in the areas of victimization, binge drinking, serious substance use, and mental health in a population of high school students. The final paper explores the relations between environmental risks and the mental health of Latino children and youth in migrant farmworker families. Our discussant will provide commentary on the papers drawing from their own significant experience with highly mobile child populations. Together, this symposium highlights the challenges and risks facing highly mobile children across differing environmental contexts.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Zoe Ellen Taylor, Purdue University

Discussant

• Ann Masten, University of Minnesota

Individual Presentations

• Teacher-Child Relationships for Highly Mobile Children Living in Non-Parental Care - Presenting Author: Sara Schmitt, Purdue University; Megan Pratt, Arizona State University; Shannon Lipscomb, Oregon State University - Cascades

• Homelessness in High School: Population-representative Rates of Self-reported Homelessness, Resilience, and Risk - Presenting Author: J.J. Cutuli, Rutgers University-Camden

• The Mental Health and Well-Being of Youth from Latino Migrant Farmworker Families - Presenting Author: Zoe Ellen Taylor, Purdue University; Yumary Ruiz, Purdue University