Childhood Family Instability and Mental Health Problems During Late Adolescence: A Test of Two Mediation Models—The TRAILS Study

Family and housing instability: Longitudinal impact on adolescent emotional and behavioral well-being

“…Ackerman et al (1999) represented family instability as an aggregate of several indicators including number of moves, number of caregiver’s intimate partners, number of families with whom the child has lived, serious childhood illness, and any other significant negative life changes such as parental job losses or deaths of relatives. Later studies included indicators such as serious physical or mental illness of family members (Bakker et al, 2012), proportion of time spent in a female-headed household (Fomby and Cherlin, 2007), school transfers (Marcynyszyn et al, 2008), and the birth of a new sibling or entry of a new child into the home (Milan et al, 2006). The common themes underlying these measures have been chaos and flux in the child’s household, with a greater frequency of changes indicating a higher level of instability.…”

“…Family structures and transitions have been linked to a number of consequences in adolescent health and behavior, such as internalizing and externalizing problems (Bakker et al, 2012; Forman and Davies, 2003), emotional distress (Cavanagh, 2008), and cognitive achievement (Fomby and Cherlin, 2007). Family structure transitions have been associated with delinquency and substance abuse (McLeer and DeHart, 2013; Lee et al, 2012).…”

“…While some studies have included housing as an indicator of family instability, housing problems alone have been shown to have independent effects on the mental and physical health of children and adolescents (Bakker et al, 2012; Brown and Low, 2008; Bugard et al, 2012). Fomby and Sennott found that housing and school mobility frequently accompanied family structure change, and that other related factors such as income loss, legal troubles, and exposure to different peer groups also predicted problem behaviors in adolescents (2013).…”

“…These outcomes capture a range of behavioral domains previously linked to child and adolescent instability and other adverse life events (Lee et al, 2012; McLeer and DeHart, 2013). Elevations across these key domains—mental health, health behavior, and criminal involvement— would be expected in the presence of enduring effects of family instability (Ackerman et al, 1999; Bakker et al, 2012; Porter and Vogel, 2014). Early arrest, tobacco use, and depression have been linked to increased likelihood of adult criminal involvement, poorer health outcomes, and lower psychosocial functioning in adulthood, respectively (Fuemmeler et al, 2013; Keenan-Miller et al, 2007; McCluskey et al, 2006).…”

“…Past studies focused on family changes have most often investigated cumulative experiences of parental disruptions, such as the number of marital separations, cohabitations, and caregiver deaths endured since birth (Cavanagh and Huston, 2008; Fomby and Bosick, 2013). Investigations have also counted these family changes with other disruptive familial events, especially residential moves (Ackerman et al, 2002; Bakker et al, 2012; Milan et al, 2006). However, these approaches have obscured the role of family structure by failing to provide information on the presence or absence of other caregiver combinations and their influence on adjustment, nor have studies examined the unique contribution of housing instability in context of other household instability.…”