This is an author-produced blog post to introduce upcoming Urban Affairs Review articles. The Online First abstract can be found here.
*********************************************************************************
Housing and Household Instability
Authors: Matthew
Desmond and Kristin L. Perkins
Harvard
University
Research attempting to estimate the effects of residential instability
on children and adolescents commonly overlooks other changes within households
that may be coincident with—and potentially more consequential
than—moving. Because the research on
residential instability focuses primarily on its effects on children and adolescents
and long has emphasized how moving may weaken familial bonds, which in turn may
be harmful to young people, it is particularly important to observe the
frequency at which residential or housing instability is accompanied by family
or household instability. Because
instabilities may cluster in time, documenting the extent to which residential
instability is accompanied by other forms of instability can inform future
efforts to estimate the effects of moving and improve our understanding of how
residential instability may or may not drive social and health
disparities.
