House moves can worry pre-schoolers:

Pre-school children from families who move houses a lot have poorer verbal ability and higher rates of hyperactivity and other behavioural and emotional problems than those who don’t, according to research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

Researcher, Dr Ben Edwards said young children aged four to five years old who had moved house more than five times during their lives had considerably poorer speech and language skills, compared with children who had only moved once.

“Four and five year olds who moved house five or more times had quite large differences in their verbal ability suggesting that frequent moves are linked to lower language skills, compared to children who had lived in the same house,” Dr Edwards said.

“The children whose families moved more than five times also tended to have more emotional and behavioural problems like hyperactivity, nervousness and worry, peer relationship problems and conduct problems in school, compared to the overall average.

“Children aged four and five appear to be especially sensitive to high residential mobility and are at a stage where disruptions to social connections in neighbourhoods can be difficult, particularly if they have make new friends."

Dr Edwards says residential mobility affects children less as they get to 8 or 9 years - somewhat surprisingly considering children are forming more and more relationships outside the family at this age and are more likely to become attached to friends and teachers.

“By the time children get older, to around eight and nine years old, residential mobility affects them far less and instead, other aspects of their family background tend to matter more." Dr Edwards said.

The study used data from the Growing Up In Australia: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children and is one of only a few Australian studies to examine the influence of housing on children’s development.

The study found that:

• 61% of families in the study were part-way through paying off a mortgage (averaging a cost of $434 a week)
• 13% owned their own homes out-right
• 16% were in private rental
• 3.2% were ‘doubling up’ or staying with extended family, other families, or were in other accommodation arrangements.