The more unpredictable an environment is for children, the more likely they are to exhibit mental and physical health issues when they hit their teenage and early adulthood years, according to new University of Georgia research.
The study linked impulsive behaviors from parents, frequent partner changes, child care instability and overall chaos in households to poor behavior and mental instability in children as they grew up.
Homes with consistent co-parenting and routines were associated with better youth outcomes.
"Giving children a script to understand how daily events unfold helps set them up for success," said Kalsea Koss, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences ' Department of Human Development and Family Science. "Having a family routine or consistent caregiver that's very predictable in their behavior is helpful for children to have an understanding of what to expect and then to be able to build their own behavioral regulation strategies around that."
Less stability at home leads to more depression and anxiety, behavioral problems
The study relied on data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which followed more than 4,800 children from birth to age 15.
Children in less stable homes were more likely to exhibit impulsive or delinquent behaviors as teens, likely due to unregulated emotions, the researchers found.
The youth also reported higher levels of depression and anxiety.
"We don't have to have really strict, predictable, stable environments always," Koss said. "Small amounts of changes in our lives are OK because they help us learn how to be flexible and practice emotional and behavioral regulation strategies.
"But when they start to pile up and accumulate across childhood, there's a tipping point. It becomes more problematic and leads to more of these lifelong negative outcomes."
This translated to physical issues as well. Many of the youth in unstable homes had higher body mass index, or BMI, likely due to stress.
Parents' income, where families live play a role in childhood stability
The researchers identified additional factors that were outside parents' control that also negatively impacted their children's development, such as family income.
For example, more than one in three of the families were at or below the federal poverty line. As a result, these families often moved more frequently and lived in less safe neighborhoods.
"Chaotic or unpredictable environments in and of themselves don't seem like they would be a form of childhood adversity compared to things like maltreatment, abuse or neglect," Koss said. "But we compared our findings relative to other adverse childhood experiences and found the same outcomes.
"This study expands what we think of as childhood adversity, and it shows what is important for lifelong health and well-being."
This study was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Co-authors include Sydney Kronaizl and Rachel Brown, graduates of UGA's Department of Human Development and Family Science; and Columbia University's Jeanne Brooks-Gunn.
