Settled homes in childhood may protect mental health for years to come

Moving house is often cited as one of life's most stressful events — so it tracks that moving house frequently is likely to take a cumulative toll on someone's mental health. Similarly, we know that living in areas of high deprivation in childhood is linked to poor mental health outcomes later in life.

The ways in which the two interrelate is explored in a massive new study in JAMA Psychiatry. Using data from everyone born in Denmark between January 1st 1982 and December 31st 2003, an Aarhus University team finds that it is not just living in a highly deprived neighbourhood that impacts children's mental health, but moving a lot — regardless of where they are moving to or from.

The team collected data from the 1,096,916-strong cohort, all of whom were registered on the Danish Civil Registration System. The system is updated with residential addresses within five days of moving, meaning changes in location could be tracked easily.

Additionally, a total of 35,000 individuals with a diagnosis of depression were identified; these participants were followed up with until death, leaving Denmark, their depression diagnosis, or the end of the study — whichever came first. The team also measured how deprived each member of the cohort was, as well as looking at their demographic information, number of residential moves, other health conditions, and information about parents.

As in other research, certain socioeconomic factors present in childhood were associated with higher incidence of depression in adulthood. Here, they included lower parental income, parental employment status, and educational level.

Depression risk in adulthood was also higher for those who lived in more deprived neighbourhoods during their childhood. This was the case no matter how old children were when they lived in such areas, suggesting there is no particular age of exposure that is more strongly associated with depression risk.

Results also showed that those born in one of the most affluent areas who came to reside in the some of the most deprived areas at age 15 had an 18% higher risk of depression; those who made the opposite journey, however, moving from the most deprived areas to most affluent ones, also had a 13% higher risk of depression than controls.

As this would suggest, moving frequently was found to be influential on mental health. If a child moved more than twice between the ages of 10 and 15, they had a 1.6 times greater risk of developing depression than those who remained in the same place — even if that place was a deprived area. Avoiding moving during childhood could, therefore, be a significantly protective measure against developing depression later in life. The practicalities of adhering to that, however, vary widely.

As for why moving is so disruptive, the team has a number of suggestions. Staying in one place during childhood could mean that a family is stable or that they have strong social connections in a particular neighbourhood; systems like schools, sports clubs, or religious spaces could be creating "a feeling of belonging and being connected" that support positive mental wellbeing.

The team stresses that the wider social determinants of health are incredibly complex, and it's important to note that the findings from this study are not causal. There are other limitations, too. The study only had access to participants with more severe cases of depression and those who were diagnosed, and it was unable to capture some of the complexity of different living situations, such as with children living between two homes.

Overall, however, this research suggests that ensuring that children are supported through house moves should be of serious and sustained focus to parents, teachers, and wider support networks. While we can't always control whether life will require big changes to where we call home, the care we can offer during transitions is likely to soften the impact of uprooting, and potentially protect children's mental health for decades to come.

Read the paper in full:

Sabel, C. E., Pedersen, C. B., Antonsen, S., Webb, R. T., & Horsdal, H. T. (2024). Changing Neighborhood Income Deprivation Over Time, Moving in Childhood, and Adult Risk of Depression. JAMA Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.1382