You don't need science to tell you moving
is hard on a child, but a new Danish comprehensive
national investigation draws some compelling
statistical correlations between childhood
residential mobility and multiple adverse
life outcomes.
We're not talking about a self-reporting Internet
survey or a 40-person college campus study.
Since Denmark keeps careful track of
ALL residential changes, researchers from
Aarhus University and the UK's University
of Manchester were able to crunch data on
everyone born in Denmark from 1971 to 1997.
We're talking 1.4 million people, each tracked
from birth to their 15th birthday. Thirty
seven percent of the individuals studied moved
across a municipal boundary at least once
before the age of 15. In 2013, the researchers
followed up with the people to see how these
moves wound up influencing their susceptibility
to attempted suicide, criminal violence, psychiatric
illness, substance misuse, and natural and
unnatural death. The study found that individuals
who moved frequently during early adolescence
were at the highest risk for all of these
adverse outcomes. The more moves, the greater
the risk. The authors point out that parental
age, urbanization, hereditary mental illness
and socioeconomic status partially explain
some of the elevated risks. And yet, socioeconomic
standing alone did not prove as prevalent
an indicator as initially expected. The overall
increase in risk applied to all levels of
the socioeconomic spectrum. Perhaps you can
relate to this. When you're a child, moving
is a kind of mini-apocalypse, in which the
seemingly fixed pillars of your environment
fall away and the peer groups you're hardwired
to infiltrate vanish into the mist. Adjusting
to new places and new faces can be an uphill
battle. But are moves intrinsically harmful
to a child? That's the big, lingering question
in the wake of this study, published in the
American Journal of Preventive Medicine. As
always, more research is required. But regardless
of the answer, the researchers drive home
one important lesson: parents and educational
or health professionals who underestimate
the psychological needs of relocated adolescents
do so at great risk to the child's wellbeing.
Let us know how that matches up with your
experiences, and if you want more scientific insight
into your daily life, be sure to visit now.howstuffworks.com
each and every day.
