Childhood residential mobility and adult outcomes

Abstract

This study analyses the relation between moving during childhood and four different outcomes later in life. We use detailed data on complete cohorts born in Norway between 1965 and 1980 (N=967 151), their parents and siblings, and information on all their moves between Norway’s municipalities. We use traditional logistic regression models 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 show that children with more residential relocations during childhood are more likely to drop out of high school, to have low adult income, to experience early parenthood and to die at young age. The sibling fixed-effects models largely confirm this picture. We also found that children who moved prior to elementary school do not have severe long-term outcomes compared with children who did not move at that age, whereas children who moved during teens did have more adverse outcomes than those who did not move at that age.