Housing, Living Arrangements and Mental Health of Young Adults in Independent Living

Abstract

Young adults are prone to psychological stress and anxiety induced by major transitions to adulthood. While employment has predominated in previous research on the social determinants of young people’s mental health, this study examines the association between young people’s housing problems and mental health in the context of an unaffordable housing market. Using the Survey on the Living Conditions and Welfare Needs of Youths (n = 1308) in Korea, the study found that perceived poor housing quality and material hardship are negatively associated with the mental health of young adults living independently. Specifically, while poor housing quality and material hardship induced by housing cost burden were negatively associated with single-person households’ mental health, only poor housing quality was associated with non-single-person households’ mental health. This study is one of the few studies examining the linkage between housing problems and mental health of young adults and informs the interventions aimed at promoting the psychological well-being of young adults in the transition from parents’ homes to independent living.

Effect of Housing Quality on the Mental Health of University Students during the COVID-19 Lockdown

“…The data also emphasized the possible need for novel and more technological tools for flexible interior design modifications [ 49 ], common recreational open spaces, and vegetation views [ 20 , 50 , 51 ], as well as workspace adaptations [ 24 , 41 ]. Our findings also support a positive association between self-reported mental health symptomatology and indoor quality features, such as the presence of plant plots, or greater amounts of sunlight, as also reported in previous European studies [ 37 , 52 , 53 ].…”

“…Studies published in recent literature have started investigating, in a systematic way, the overall quality of built environment [ 29 , 30 ] and living spaces, revealing that the absence of accessible outdoor space from the house (e.g., garden, terrace) contributed to concerning levels of psychological and behavioral symptomatology [ 31 ], confirming that housing environments could be associated with the mental health and wellbeing of residents [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. While mental illnesses can be investigated through structured and validated scales, housing quality is mainly assessed in terms of occupants’ perception, due to the complexity of surveying a high number of different apartments and the low psychometric reliability of existing tools [ 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ].…”

Motivation Research on the Content Creation Behaviour of Young Adults in Anxiety Disorder Online Communities

“…In particular, few scholars study users in ADOCs. Although increasing numbers of young adults are becoming susceptible to anxiety [1], few scholars study young adults [22]. Therefore, this paper focuses on a group of young adult users in ADOCs.…”

The mental health of children and young people living in big cities in a revolving postpandemic world

“…Growing up in financially unstable households is also associated with elevated levels of psychosocial symptoms in children [17], and poverty has a negative effect on the psychological wellbeing of adolescents [18,19]. Factors mediating these associations are still to be fully understood, and are possibly intermediated by a series of stressors, including food insecurity [19], low social capital [20] and poor housing [21,22]. Noteworthy, deleterious consequences of such adverse material conditions go beyond increasing the rates of mental disorders, as they also obliterate opportunities for human development.…”