Moving in Childhood Contributes to Depression

[MsAmerica]

I found this mind-boggling.

Moving in Childhood Contributes to Depression, Study Finds
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.
By Ellen Barry

Researchers who conducted a large study of adults in Denmark, published on Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, found something they had not expected: Adults who moved frequently in childhood have significantly more risk of suffering from depression than their counterparts who stayed put in a community.

In fact, the risk of moving frequently in childhood was significantly greater than the risk of living in a poor neighborhood, said Clive Sabel, a professor at the University of Plymouth and the paper’s lead author. “Even if you came from the most income-deprived communities, not moving — being a ‘stayer’ — was protective for your health,” said Dr. Sabel, a geographer who studies the effect of environment on disease.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/17/health/moving-childhood-depression.html

Frequent house moves put kids at risk of depression as adults
Children who move once between the ages of 10 and 15 are 41% more likely to be diagnosed with depression in adulthood, compared with those whose families don't move, researchers found. And kids who move twice or more at that age are 61% more likely to develop depression, results.
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2024/07/18/frequent-house-moves-kids-risk-depression-adults/9221721314727/

Frequent Childhood Relocations Linked To 40% Higher Risk Of Depression In Adulthood
https://www.medicaldaily.com/frequent-childhood-relocations-linked-40-higher-risk-depression-adulthood-471986

Frequent Moving in Childhood Linked to Later Depression
https://alert.psychnews.org/2024/07/frequent-moving-in-childhood-linked-to.html

What’s mind boggling op? Children crave stability. By nature they’re sentimental and the home they grow up in has meaning. This study doesn’t surprise me in the least.

I bet it's a variable. Kids move more when their parents have ADHD, divorce, have unstable jobs. I'd love to see what they corrected for.

Interesting - however the main study uses children born 1982-2003, so they were age 10-15 in a much less well connected world to today... I do think that must be a variable as moving when you can still remain in regular social contact with friends is quite different to doing it in the 90s are relying on being pen pals.

However it does match the known observation of parents whose work moves them regularly - that moving is much harder the older the kids are and ideally not done during secondary.

Yes, the cause and effect link is bit at all clear.

My kids have moved a lot (we've been in the same place a few years now and I intend to stay here until they move out on their own)

I can see how this could happen - even in families without other issues - I can see that it's had an affect on my children:

Inability to make deep friendships - although they make 'friends' quickly, because they know they're not staying these are always easily broken friendships too (and they're surrounded by kids with the same experience in international schools

No connection to their rooms - we've been living in the same place for about 4 years, and they've still not bothered (despite repeated offers) to paint their rooms - because for the majority of their lives, they were in rented accommodation, and they knew they wouldn't be there long

No desire to play a particular sport - the school sports were different at each place, the facilities available were different everywhere, so they've never been on a sports team - the idea is totally foreign to them.

It's a different upbringing to most, and these kids had parents who were together (Although not any more - and admittedly, he was a fairly absent father), all the privilege, but still very affected by it - I can imagine that this feeling of disconnection could lead to all sorts of affects in adulthood

Very interesting thanks for sharing.

I've heard anecdote of this and also seen something similar.

Agree with PP about how we are more connected these days which might alter the study if done now. But perhaps there is something about the home itself and the loss of that.

This. It's not the move itself that leads to depression.

Makes sense. How do they define a ‘move’, does it exclude locally?

How interesting. There was a long thread on here a couple of weeks ago about moving house in childhood and how some people felt it had affected their mental health - although interestingly, on that thread the frequent movers (army kids etc) seemed to cope better than those who only moved once. I'll see if I can find it...

I fell into a deep depression after moving house and schools at age 12. I never really recovered. Found it deeply traumatising as I left a core group of friends, plus extended family I was close with, and was a reserved child who took time to warm up to new people. I cannot express just how much it negatively impacted me. Some kids will do just fine with it, others definitely won't. I made the decision that my kids would stay in the same place until 18. The study doesn't surprise me at all.

From the titles it looked like it would be many moves, but one is also a factor: “Specifically, children who move once between ages 10 to 15 are 41% more likely to be diagnosed with depression than those who don't move. And if a child moves twice or more between the ages of 10 and 15, the risk rises to around 61%. This is a stronger effect than growing up in a deprived neighbourhood.”

I worked in a very privileged field with a lot of moves - three years in a country and then a year at HQ, then another three years away. Friends who grew up in this were somewhat rootless, but also global citizens. If there are frequent moves for non career reasons there is likely a lot of instability in the mix.

This is what I was wondering. You can move house and still be within the same community. It sounds like it is the upheaval away from the community (friends, school, family etc) rather than the physical home which is the issue.

It's also hardly rocket science to be fair. Wr already have the term 'army brat' as a way of easily defining a child who was moved around between countries frequently and now experiences mental health and behavioural problems as an adult.

Here we are:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5119649-to-think-moving-as-a-teenager-was-traumatic?page=1

Not surprising at all. We know a few people who grew up in military families, otherwise stable, who hated the moving. Missing friends, schooling messed up, and as said above kids crave stability.

Having seen the effect on my brother and sister of moving round the world with my dad's job, I was very determined my own son would not move area after starting school. My brother and sister have not moved their families either.

Yes I wondered this too.
Is it frequent moves due to relationship break ups, unstable housing etc?
I moved area 3 times in 15 years as a child but each time we moved as a very stable family unit, and were always still within a couple of hours of my grandparents, aunts etc.

Specifically, children who move once between ages 10 to 15 are 41% more likely to be diagnosed with depression than those who don't move. And if a child moves twice or more between the ages of 10 and 15, the risk rises to around 61%.

This is interesting - my kids moves were all before they hit 10 - I don't know why, but I had a strong urge to stabilise our moves at that point and so did. They're still affected, but it's interesting to see that it's once they're tweens - ie. getting their independence from their parents that it has the effect.

Im a 'forces brat', DH moved a lot due to parents' debt. We've moved house with our 13yo but never school, he's in secondary with 90% of his primary school classmates. We're determined not to change city, school or disrupt friendships as we've experienced.

Neither DH nor I are depressed, but we're rootless and shit at putting up photos when we move! After 6 years here we still have them in a box...

That’s reassuring because the headline is extremely sobering.
I had one childhood home and felt bored and suffocated to the point of madness. I would self harm and ‘create’ just to make something happen. I also acutely grieved friends who moved away- 50 years on I could give you names and dates. Pre social media it was like a bereavement.
My dc went to 10 schools between them. However that included a stint in paradise, and returning to the same house and excellent primary school. (Time limited, by the beach, pool and two years in a different more relaxed curriculum) before we moved to the one house they lived in for the end of primary and all their secondary school.
They are all mid twenties now, successful and happy, as far as a mother can know (I’m pretty sure I’m a reliable narrator)
They’re also all extremely confident and intrepid- will travel solo and have massive friendship groups including from primary because moving away doesn’t meaning losing people nowadays.

I moved to a different country in the UK as a child and I found it incredibly challenging. It still feels painful to think about it. I have done everything to try and make sure that my kids are born and grow up in the same place where we feel a strong sense of belonging in the community. I hope I can continue to achieve that for them until they are old enough to leave. That sense of stability and familiarity is so important.

I think it's true that personality plays a part. I'm extroverted and adventurous. My brother is not. We moved to a different country and I very quickly learned the language, made lifelong friends, integrated into the culture. My brother did not.

For me, it's part of an enduring love of travel and languages. I recently learned an obscure language for fun and I'm Duolingo-ing another now. My friend are all from all over the world, different experiences.

Whether you are fast-approach or slow-approach is hard-wired and very consistent over time. And moving a slow-approach child is hard for them.

This is why boarding schools exist, the forces have known this for centuries.
Stability is key as well as a sense of belonging and emotional attachments to environmental aspects as well as people, enabling your sense of self to develop.

I remember at uni several of the kids who had been to international school talking about how they were "third culture kids" and couldn't connect to others and were emotionally repressed and rootless because of it. If I'm honest, they struck me as a little self indulgent like they were trying to create drama from nothing, and I wondered if they were bored and wanted to find a way to make themselves feel special. But reading this perhaps I was being a little uncharitable!

I am 'third culture kid'. I moved frequently due to my Dad's job in the oil industry. I think there are benefits and downsides. I haven't repeated that with my own DC though.

it's impossible to prove a causal link between the moving and depression. As others have said, it's more common for kids to move if their parents split, if they are in unstable housing etc.