Thursday, December 9, 2010

Does Moving a Child Create Adult Baggage?

Author: Pamela Paul

Publication Name: The New York Times

Date of Publication: July 9, 2010

Summary:

Research has shown that a variety of adult problems has stemmed from moving houses in one’s adolescent life. Psychologist, sociologists, and epidemiologists notice that children that move often do worse in school and have behavioral problems than children that are stationary.
Americans are a highly mobile bunch and according to Professor Oishi, “American levels of well-being can be explained in part by residential differences.” People that move frequently say they have less “quality relationships.” People that moved a lot as children were reported to have less “self-satisfaction” and “well-being” as adults. These are the two characteristics used to measure adult happiness.
However the personality of the child also matters, whether they are introverted or extroverted. Those that are extroverted tend to remain the same while introverts are more deeply impacted. It is shown that a child reacts differently to the different reasons for moving. Military children handle moving better because children in military schools are in the same situation. However, relocation due to a job may adversely affect a child as well as relocation due to divorce or foreclosure because of the financial and relationship problems that may follow.
The age group that it affects the most though is the kids that are still in middle school. Being a pre-teenager with hormones and puberty is already a lot to handle. Adding in moving to a different place makes the tween years so much more appealing. Middle school kids will be more affected than older kids or younger kids in high school or elementary school.
Links to Study: N/A

Article:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/fashion/11StudiedMoving.html?ref=psychology_and_psychologists

Submitted By: Tina Nguyen

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