Moving in Childhood Contributes to Depression More Than Poverty

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a military brat. I am also an introvert. Yet I loved moving. This might work as a generalization but obviously everyone is different.

I wish they would repeat the study using military families as comparators. I believe that the depression likely is caused by the underlying reasons for the move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a military brat. I am also an introvert. Yet I loved moving. This might work as a generalization but obviously everyone is different.

Same here and there were five of us and we all turned out fine and have no problem adapting to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"A study of more than a million Danes found that frequent moves in childhood had a bigger effect than poverty on adult mental health risk."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/17/health/moving-childhood-depression.html

What do you think? Also, do you think changing schools several times without moving has the same affect?

I think Danish poverty isn’t American poverty (all Danes get health care!), so this doesn’t translate here.

This is a huge factor; also Danish culture is a lot more insular and people are very reserved with outsiders. It’s much harder to make meaningful connections in a new area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"A study of more than a million Danes found that frequent moves in childhood had a bigger effect than poverty on adult mental health risk."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/17/health/moving-childhood-depression.html

What do you think? Also, do you think changing schools several times without moving has the same affect?

I think Danish poverty isn’t American poverty (all Danes get health care!), so this doesn’t translate here.

Danish cuture is also insular and outside of Copenhagen families are generations deep in their towns. I don't think this translates well into US culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No way. Millions of kids move all around the world in miliary families. They are fine. Ask me how I know!

Military families have much better support networks than people who just move on a whim because they didn’t like something about the house or the neighborhood or the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anecdotally, my family moved a lot when I was growing up and it did affect me. I vowed never to do that to my kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way. Millions of kids move all around the world in miliary families. They are fine. Ask me how I know!

Military families have much better support networks than people who just move on a whim because they didn’t like something about the house or the neighborhood or the schools.

Most people don’t “move on a whim.” They move because of a parents death, divorce, for work, cheaper rent, to escape dangerous or really bad schools.

[Anonymous]

I believe it.
My kid is adopted and we have lived in the sane house the whole time. She has changed schools but really only because of Covid. So public elem, private 4-8. She will go back to public for HS. She still sees some of the kids though that she will get back with in HS through neighborhood activities, summer camp etc.
her older birth siblings have moved frequently, like moved house 7-8 times times in the last 13 years. They’ve changed schools each time.
I think the section 8 housing and being relocated is part of the problem through the housing program. They’re kind of a disaster.

[Anonymous]

I’m the above poster. Families in poverty get moved disproportionately because of the social programs that help with housing.
It’s like kids that bounce around in foster care.
The system is broken. These families are already vulnerable and the government makes it worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe this but it's really important to note that the study only looked at "frequent moves." This doesn't hold for a family that moves once or even twice fur a job relocation or to be closer to family or to gain a higher quality of life.

And when you understand that, the finding becomes both obvious and kind of useless. Frequent moves with kids indicates some kind of instability-- poor finances, job instability, divorce and/or other relationship instability, potentially mental or physical health issues. The one exception might be military families, but I'd be interested to see a study in the US comparing kids in military families to those who had frequent moves for other reasons. I bet you anything the military families fare better because those families are more likely to be otherwise stable with the exception of moving a lot.

So when you realize this study is really just looking at kids from unstable families with likely financial, relationship, and other issues, it's obvious the moves themselves aren't really the issue.

This is not a study that is useful if you are contemplating a single move with kids for a job opportunity. There's nothing in the study that would tell you moving will be worse for your kids than staying. Sometimes a move is the best possible thing for a family.

This is a common problem with these kind of studies - the factors that supposedly negatively affect kids’ mental health in the future are also a strong indicator that the parents of these kids themselves have mental health issues, and that has a strong genetic component.

The study was praised for being methodologically sound. I agree with the spirit of what you’re saying but it sounds like they tried to exclude for economic instability and other factors. Did you read the NYT article?

[Anonymous]

I went to 4 elementary schools in 3 states, not military, NBD.

I would definitely move my kids around if we had a good reason, though ideally not once our oldest is MS or older

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a military brat. I am also an introvert. Yet I loved moving. This might work as a generalization but obviously everyone is different.

I wish they would repeat the study using military families as comparators. I believe that the depression likely is caused by the underlying reasons for the move.

Would be hard to do that in Denmark!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way. Millions of kids move all around the world in miliary families. They are fine. Ask me how I know!

Military families have much better support networks than people who just move on a whim because they didn’t like something about the house or the neighborhood or the schools.

Most people don’t “move on a whim.” They move because of a parents death, divorce, for work, cheaper rent, to escape dangerous or really bad schools.

Isn’t that the point though? It’s those factors not the move itself contributing the most to subsequent depression. Financial struggles, grief, experience with dangerous neighborhoods, employment instability. Remove those types of factors plus family mental illness or instability, and you don’t see the same effects (see: US military families also experiencing moves).

[Anonymous]

I don’t think moving as part of the military is quite the same because you have a built in community as part of the culture that understands and is dealing with the same thing.

Moving so mom can be closer to her new boyfriend’s family after a divorce is just a way different context.

I bet if someone was able to do a study that teased apart the various fact patterns you’d see a divergence in outcomes based on the reason for the moves.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. I didn’t move residences as a kid but I did move schools, from public to private and back again. I do think it affected me. Even though I am an extrovert, I was the “new kid” when I went to high school and I didn’t know how to navigate the cliques and social expectations, especially as an attractive girl. This was the 90’s and the slut shaming was brutal. I was a virgin throughout HS, but that didn’t matter—I had vile things said behind my back, written about me on bathroom walls, etc.

In addition, my parents divorced when I was two years old and I went to my Dad’s house every weekend, 45 minutes away. I had a whole different life ther. Even with loving parents, siblings, and extended family, I always felt I was living a double life.

On the plus side, I am able to get along with literally anyone and I have had some great adventures in life as a result. On the other hand, I am a poster child for high-functioning anxiety and depression. Genetic? Yes. But the moving around did not help.