Housing loss causes mental health struggles in children

At a time when costs are high and social safety nets appear further endangered, the experience of eviction, foreclosure, and housing loss creates a measurable and detrimental impact on families. New research, appearing Wednesday in JAMA Network Open, now shows the true impact on children and their mental health.

We knew that eviction or housing loss can impact the adults in a household, but we didn't know as much about what happen to kids in families facing eviction or housing loss." 

Jamie Hanson, associate professor in psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and the paper's primary author

In this new study, Hanson used data from over 36,000 families and looked at how a parent's anxiety or stress about eviction, foreclosur, or housing loss was related to mental health issues in their kids. Stress about eviction or housing loss was associated with depression and anxiety disorders. "When a caregiver was really worried, this was related to a major increase, 10% to 35%, in depression," Hanson said.

Particularly important was the impact on young children, under the age of 9. "Normally, we don't see high rates of depression in young kids, those younger than 8 or 9; but a parent's anxiety or stress about housing loss was related to those issues being reported more," Hanson added.

Of note, stress about housing loss wasn't related to increases in all mental health issues. "There weren't major connections with ADHD and behavioral problems. We controlled for lots of other factors and didn't see strong links," Hanson said.

In sum, the stress increased the odds that children "will internalize issues, such as depression and anxiety," the author wrote in the paper titled, "Stress About Eviction or Loss of Housing and Child Mental Health."

"Notably, eviction and foreclosures are not equally distributed across demographics - it disproportionately affects individuals from minoritized racial and ethnic groups, the economically marginalized, and families with children in their homes," Hanson wrote in the paper.

He added: "Our findings underscore the urgent need for policies and programs to address housing instability and protect children's mental well-being. It doesn't need to be this way. We could do more housing assistance; we could allow court records about eviction to be sealed for a period of time…. We need to do more."