How important is stability for a child?

Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships for parents are good for children too. They may help interrupt the cycle of violence and reduce children’s exposure to abuse and neglect.

How family stability affects children’s health?

Chronic instability—experiencing transitions so often that instability becomes the norm, as it does for many low-income families—may create toxic stress, which increases children’s risks of all kinds of health and social problems. Finally, many background factors affect the impact of a given transition.

What does stability mean for a child?

A well-bonded child is secure and does better at everything. If raised in a stable environment, your child will have less anxiety and a higher threshold of security. A child who experiences instability at an early stage of development is under stress.

What does an unstable childhood mean?

Family instability is any factor that creates additional challenges within a family unit that ultimately affects a child/children’s cognitive, behavioral and emotional development, and places their development at significant risk due to the parents’ inability to effectively manage the home and the living environment.

Why do children suffer from lack of stability?

If a child’s life involves upset and unrest, due to any number of negative situations, the child is likely to suffer in different ways from a lack of stability.

How does family instability affect a child’s development?

 Family instability is linked to problem behaviors and some academic outcomes, even at early ages.  Children’s problem behaviors further increase with multiple changes in family structure.  Family transitions that occur early in children’s development, prior to age 6, and in adolescence appear to have the strongest effects.

How does lack of stability affect our everyday life?

Stability forms the backbone of a child’s life, providing the structure, strength and consistency that supports the child emotionally and psychologically. If a child’s life involves upset and unrest, due to any number of negative situations, the child is likely to suffer in different ways from a lack of stability. Loading

How does lack of control affect a child?

When parents lack choice or control over change, they may be less likely to support their children in adapting to the change. “Unbuffered” stress that escalates to extreme levels can be detrimental to children’s mental health and cognitive functioning (Evans, Brooks-Gunn, and Klebanov 2011; Shonkoff and Garner 2011).