Exploring the Impact and Implications of Residential Mobility

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Background Information
Literature Review
Methodology
Findings
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Mobility among the human populations forms one of the most common phenomena. Human beings are highly mobile, with the reasons for moving to vary among individuals or groups. Movements are sometimes in search of affordable dwelling places, security purposes, in search of employment opportunities, due to employment relocations and job transfers among other reasons. According to the United States census bureau (2007), over 17% of households with both pre-school and school-going children had undergone at least one residential movement, the majority (68%) of whom had moved within the United States with the rest moving to places outside the country (para1).

Various researches have however been conducted to unveil the effects of residential movement on the various constituents of the human population more so on the school-aged children. The author of this article admits that limited social research on the effect of residential mobility on school-aged children has been conducted, and indicates that this one is a breakthrough towards unveiling the effects of residential mobility on this highly vulnerable social group. This paper, therefore, is a report on the effect and implication of residential mobility on the academic and social well being of school-aged children

Background Information

According to the evidence presented by earlier research on this subject by Currie and Yelowtz in (2000, para1), residential movement often forces the school-aged children to relocate to new schools, which come with changes in routines, new social triangles, and making of new friends, assimilation to new social groups and massive disruption of the children’s education. The effects of these movements depend on the nature and reason for the movement, as well as the individuals affected by mobility. In this article (being a social survey report), the author focuses on the effects of the residential movements of the families and children as well as its overall effect on the school-aged children’s education and social aspects. It reviews the relationship between a family’s residential mobility, children’s behavior, and how the latter affects the children’s performance in their education.

The author of this article admits that although not all residential mobility necessitates children to relocate to new schools, the movement still has adverse effects on the child’s school life since the child has to adjust to the new living space as well as to this new neighborhood, which is, of course, a source of stress on the part of the affected child. The effects of this mobility have been noted by the previous researches to be higher and more adverse in families that are frequently moving and which do not have sufficient resources to support these movements. These families do not have enough social capital to foot the expenses incurred during the numerous relocations and settling in the new environment which may result in strains on the part of the child irrespective of whether such move leads to a change in school or not.

In carrying out this research, therefore, the researcher or rather the author of this article sought to fill the existing gap in the field of social research by finding out the impacts of frequent family or residential moves on the schooling, and the overall social aspects of the elementary school-aged children from the affected families. The research was however based on strong evidence of previous researches as shown by the researcher’s comprehensive literature review, a factor that the latter uses to site the existing gap in the social research concerning the subject and the very gap that the report seeks to address.

Literature Review

According to Schafft (2005, para4), the economically instigated moves are not usually to better economic designation but are rather unintended for and highly erratic. In addition, they are a major source of social tie-breakages and massive interruptions of the children’s academic lives. The latter also notes that movement within the same geographical area or rather what he refers to as lateral mobility is more characteristic to low-income households. According to Hendershott (1989, para5), the often assumed that a move to an economically better place is always beneficial to the school-going children has been contradicted by the numerous research findings on the same. Irrespective of the place and the reasons for any single move, the event is a source of stress and usually causes disruption to the child’s school life. However, the effect of residential mobility largely depends on the nature of the move (Hango, 2003 para.5).

In her research entitled the national longitudinal study for youths and published in Duncun et al. (2003 para5), she found out that movement from poor living neighborhoods to more economically well up neighborhoods and residence yielded positive results in the reduction of negative behavior among the school-aged children. However, this impact was found to diminish as time went by. Consequently, movement from poor to poor culminated in increased negative behavior which was exhibited over a long period of time or even became permanent. The results also brought in the gender factor and found out that, lateral movements had the more adverse effect on the behavioral change of boys even when the latter involved moving to more economically well up neighborhoods or residences.

In a research conducted by Currie and Yelowitz (2000, para5), a conclusion was that lack of mobility among families was the main and most reliable source of both social and education stability among the children. According to Tucker et al. (1998 para6), students who keep on moving are likely to be faced with behavioral problems in school. Admitting that there is a great relationship between a child’s academic well-being and behavioral challenges, the latter concurred that mobility among the school-aged children had a negative impact on both variables. Furthermore, the author indicated that the effects of mobility on the latter can be both short and long-term depending on the nature of the move.

Methodology

In the pursuit of this study, the author utilized a stratified sampling to identify the research population of 495^th grade students from different economic and social background. This is because student enrolled in fifth grade in these public schools system usually transfers middle school for sixth grade. The author indicates that the fifth graders were the most appropriate for the study because they help in maintaining the focus of mobility experiences of the elementary school children. The stratification of the sample also ensured that the researcher included student from across the social and economic divide as well as to obtain the most representative sample for the ultimate results.

Findings

The study found out that the elementary schools that were composed of families who kept on frequently moving were at a risk of being faced with academic and behavioral problems in schools. The research also revealed a high possibility of this group being formed of the poor African American single parent households with an evidence of having been involved on child protective service (CPS). The findings of this study indicated that high family (residential) movements had a direct relationship with academic and behavioral challenges among the school-aged children. According to the findings, children with frequent rates of movement registered lower reading scores than their more stable counterparts, and were more likely to be associated and referred because of behavioral problems. According to the finding of the survey, the poor performance of mobile students could be linked to a number of factors which includes the intensity of adjustments that the students are required to make after moving to a new neighborhood, new school and the disruptive impact that the changes have on learning and instruction.

Conclusion

In conclusion, human beings are highly mobile. Movement may be instigated by consideration of various factors such us search of employment, affordable housing, war and conflicts, change of jobs and transfers among others. In addition, movement of families may be from poor to well up places, from well up to poor or lateral (from poor to poor). Comprehensive evidence as indicated in the literature review of this article indicates that all aspect of residential mobility has effects and implication on the academic life and social behavior of the school-aged children. Furthermore, movement has an effect, regardless of the place and the reason for the move or whether the move led to change in the child’s school or not.

Works Cited

Currie, J., and Yelowitz, A. “Are public housing projects good for kids?” Journal of Public Economics, 75(1), 59–72. 2000

Duncan, G., Clark-Kauffman, E., and Snell, E. Residential mobility interventions as treatments for the sequelae of neighborhood violence (Working Paper). Chicago: Northwestern University, 2004

Hango, D. W. The effect of neighborhood poverty and residential mobility on child well-being. Dissertation, Ohio State University. 2003

Hendershott, A. “Residential mobility, social support and adolescent self-concept”. Adolescence, 24, 217-232, 1989.

Robin L. et al, Exploring the Impact and Implications of Residential Mobility: From the Neighborhood to the School: Advances in Social Work Vol. 10 No. 1 (2009), 1-18

Schafft, K. “Poverty, residential mobility and student transiency within a rural New York school district”. 2005 Paper presented at the Rural Poverty in the Northeast: Global Forces and Individual Coping Strategies Conference, Penn State University. Web.

Tucker, C. J., Marx, J., and Long, L. “Moving on”: Residential mobility and children’s school lives. Sociology of Education, 71, 111-129.1998

U.S. Census Bureau. (2007). Geographic mobility: 2005 to 2006 detailed tables. Web.

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