Childhood residential mobility and adult outcomes

Childhood moving has been associated with negative outcomes, almost regardless of the specific outcome studied. Most studies struggle to differentiate whether the move is harmful in itself or whether the adverse outcomes are results of underlying causes.
We use detailed data on complete cohorts of children born in Norway 1965-1980 (N=967 151), their parents and siblings, and information on all their residential relocation between the around 400 municipalities in Norway. We use both logistic regression and sibling fixed-effects models. First, we assess how different outcomes are affected by the number of times a child has moved. Next, we examine whether the child’s age at moving is important.
The results suggest that risks for not completing high school, low adult income, early parenthood and early mortality increase with each additional residential relocation during childhood. For instance, odd ratios for not completing high school were 1.64 (CI 1.61-1.68) for children who moved more than 3 times compared with non-movers. The logistic regression results were largely confirmed by the sibling fixed-effects models. Considering age at moving, we found that moves prior to elementary school did not have significant adverse long-term effects, whereas moves during middle school (13-15 years) appeared to be particularly detrimental.