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June 4th, 2010
05:58 PM ET
Frequent moves in childhood linked to poor outcomes
By Elizabeth Landau The stress of moving on children may carry negative effects on mental health and happiness in adulthood, a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests. People who had moved more as children were more likely to report lower life satisfaction and psychological well-being, regardless of age, gender and education level. These people also said they had fewer quality social relationships in adulthood than those who moved less in their youth. Study participants came from a sample of more than 7,000 Americans adults who were contacted in 1994 and 1995. Nearly 5,000 of them completed additional surveys 10 years later that included questions about life satisfaction, personality, and how many times they moved to a "totally new neighborhood or town" as children. Personality may play a big role in this, the authors wrote. Previous research has shown that high extraversion and low neuroticism are strongly associated with most aspects of well-being. The authors of the current study found that introverted participants who said they had moved frequently as children said they had lower levels of life satisfaction and psychological well-being than introverts who had not moved often. Introverts who had moved a lot as children also had a small increased likelihood of dying between survey periods. When children move to different places, they are forced to leave their friendships behind and make new ones, which isn't always easy, the authors note. Introverted children may have a harder time joining a new social circle and developing close relationships than more outgoing kids, meaning the shy ones may have more of a negative experience adjusting. One limitation of the study is that some adults may not remember how many times they moved to a new neighborhood as children, and these results come from self-reported data. Another is that some participants may not have known what constituted a "totally new neighborhood," or what ages are included in "childhood," when taking the survey. Further research should be done on the subject before the findings should influence anyone's decisions about moving, the authors wrote. Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.
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Um...
Many people here are vehemently disagreeing based on their own personal experience.
You are a sample of one!! If your personal experience mirrored that of larger society, we would not need studies. Please consider this before blasting the study as incorrect.
This is just one of a number of studies that have concluded frequent moves as a child is a negative factor in adult well-being. Of course, all the happy military brats are providing anecdotes, not actual research. They are also a special case in that they can anticipate their moves, plan for them, and receive support in making these moves. Even then, previous research has also found negative impacts from the frequent moves demanded by a military career, and the Department of Defense has taken steps to lengthen the time periods between moves because of the problems experienced by families and children. DOD has also ramped up the support services for families who must move.
For the non-military child, whose frequent moves are usually the products of divorce, death, job loss, poverty, catastrophe, child neglect, and parental instability, the additional burden of moving frequently appears to greatly exacerbate the affects of all these other negative factors. That some children are more adversely affected than others is no surprise. This study is consonant with other research, and parents would do well to minimize the number of moves a child must make.
It has nothing to do with moving. An introvert is just less outgoing and slower therefore to make friends. An extrovert is outgoing and makes friends readily. I am an introvert, and grew up in the same home in the same city all through grammar and high school. I have no contact with the friends from that era. I raised two extroverts. My oldest went to 13 schools by the time he graduated from 8th grade. He has friends all over the world, and has a PHD in P-Chem, so no trouble with learning. My younger son went to 5 schools through high school graduation. Whenever we moved he was always first to meet new kids and make new friends, and still does this to this day, and keeps in touch with them. Moving has NOTHING to do with it. It's just introvert vs. extrovert.
Rings very true for me.
My family emigrated twice, moved around quite a bit. I was very outgoing as a child, but also very polite. With each move polite became shy, shy became introverted, introverted became pretty anti-social.
My mom was an army child, but like people noted here, it appears to be a very specific environment - she has no negative feelings about it.
It also depends on parents a lot. If the family keeps to itself, moving will isolate kids even more. If the family makes a lot friends, kids will have an easier time adapting.
Overall, in my opinion, moving is bad for kids. Vacations, exchange programs, international camps, good parenting should be more than enough to broaden a kid's horizons without jerking him back and forth.
At the same time, I do have to say that moving from country to country does change one's perspective significantly. Even if I'm unhappier, I don't think I'd want to lose that. But perhaps, this is something that people should ideally experience as "fully-formed" young adults - to live on a different continent for a couple of years after college.
Maybe the next study could address the issue more critically?
Yes, moving frequently is hard. But the experience is pretty heavily influenced by the reasons behind the move, the communities one moves into and from, and the family structure.
I moved a lot (internationally) as a child, and I think it made me more adaptable and open-minded. Our family moved because of my father's job, all of my friends had a similar lifestyle, and we were an extremely close-knit family. And no, I wasn't a "brat", it was all private sector. Maybe the experience would have been different if we were moving due to economic reasons, moving to areas that were unfamiliar with a nomadic lifestyle, or I had a less stable home structure. As it was, I feel like my upbringing had a positive influence and made me more successful in life.
I wish this study paid more intention to the influences that make frequent moves unsuccessful, rather than just saying that shy people aren't suited to frequently being exposed to new people and situations. As a previous poster said...duh.
We moved to when I was 7, 13 and 16. I attended six schools in three separate communities. I am an introvert and I eschew being too deeply rooted, so I suppose this article could have some truth. However, I regret that people like my parents, whose life choices necessitated repeated moves, would be made to feel guilty for moving us. They more than made up for the trauma by forming an attentive, tight-knit family unit in which my two brothers and I felt constant unconditional love from them. If you are a parent who must relocate your children, ignore this hogwash and just LOVE them and reassure them that whatever changes, you won't!
This is an interesting article/study. I too think that this research question needs to be re-evaluated. It is true that the military community is a community in and of itself. In my childhood moving around the world literally every 10 months to 4 years, it was always initially difficult making friends. However, I have to caveat this with the age at which this occurs. During elementary school, making friends is easy. A best friend on the other hand is difficult to make at any age.
As I got older and entered middle school, I found that making friends was easy only with other military kids. I found that most civilian (non-military) kids really did not want to invest the time or effort into a friendship that they knew was not going to last, which is understandable. Military kids did. This was apparent to me by about the fifth grade.
We were a broader family, and, as such, we related and understood each other. In looking back, all of my friends from childhood are and were other military kids! We were in many ways rejected by the local non-militrary kids and usually played and socialized with those with whom we too could relate. It was understood. There were a few exceptions but not many. It is a fact; outcasts tend to befriend other outcasts. Being a military bratt is a sort of outcast due to the lack of full acceptance by non-military kids.
Overseas, we had locals who wanted to befriend us for a variety of reasons. Oddly enough, I am in contact with those same friends even today, especially thanks to social tools like FaceBook. I am even in contact with most of my fellow military friends via FaceBook. We have all gone our separate ways now and maybe have less in common now other than a shared youthful friendship, but we all re-connected or getting re-connected with modern technology like FB.
On another note, I always remember looking forward to my next move despite the loss of my friendships; I still do. Keep in mind that most military childhood friendships last from one month to two years at most and rarely more than that. The reason is that they are moving too.
I am currently in the US Army, a surgeon, and loving it. My friends continue to be fellow military. I consider myself well adjusted, successful, and happy. I would also consider myself a bonafide introvert and only extrovert after drinking a lot of beer, which is typical of a lot of folks.
I have been told when I was in college, however, that I am not well adjusted simply because I was a military bratt by those who, in my opinion, had no idea as what life was like outside their respective city! In any case, the concepts and arguments laid out in this study are intriguing and worthy of further study, but I would not advocate this study as being a valid representation of a moving on a child's ability to make friends.
I will have to say one thing though. I always envied people who lived their whole lives in one geographical location. The reason is that they usually had childhood friends from preschool to high school. Oddly enough, most of my friends from high school were out of my life when we all went our separate ways to various colleges and made new friends! I have found this true of most of my friends as well; they too had that same experience of ditching their high school friends after high school.
In any case, the arguments of this study need further scrutiny and evaluation. I do think that it would be vastly different for non-military kids because of the lack of communal support that the military community provided. In any case, this article was thought provoking, which is good. Curious as to what further studies might suggest or imply!
It's not moving that does it, it's the environment that moves along with a family. I moved eight or nine times by the time I was 18 and I could have been happy, but I wasn’t because my parents were a couple of bickering, self centered, thoroughly irresponsible people. Despite it, I grew up and got away from it, only to have the bad luck to form a mutual bond with a female psychologist who, in the end, was more afraid of ethical ramifications than she had respect for herself as a woman with a mind and desires of her own. I was seeing her because I was at a very difficult stage in my life and if anything, I was depressed.
Psychologists need to try to live according to all the guidelines they learn from the world of textbooks, Academia and statistics, just for a single month, before they try to convince others to live by them as well: because if they did, they would see how impractical it all is. The people who modernized psychology wove their own problems into the very fabric of the profession they created, deliberately or not, and it turns otherwise healthy people into cripples left and right (and I’m speaking directly of/at the psychologists themselves, not their patients).
I was a man with desires and she was a woman with desires, who was not offended by my attention in the least and thoroughly enjoying my advances for a long time, but she took her job too seriously and it wrecked her, whether she realized it or not. No woman in her right mind would put up with me or my advances for as long as she did; unless she liked it from me a great deal more than she was supposed to, but I couldn’t keep it up forever waiting for her to realize some things about herself, not even in her case. See? Psychology seems to know how everything should be, instead of how it really is. That was my point, but if I just said it, nobody would get where my opinion comes from.
There's usually an issue when interpreting studies based on correlation. The authors appeared to look at at factors that were linked and of course, that doesn't prove cause and effect. However, what they have suggested seems highly plausible – clearly moving IS a major life stressor regardless of age and children would be less likely to have any sense of control of their circumstances when presented with a move. Previous writers mentioned that children of military parents seem more resilient and have better coping skills. I think their perceived comfort with moving, then later satisfaction with their adult life probably has more to their family's standard of living, social structure, and their being prepared for change, Certainly kids whose frequent moves were related to crises, growing up in poverty, single-parent homes, or or whose family circumstances were dysfunctional would have have had far greater challenges. Add in personality characteristics such as extroversion and introversion and one can see that we're not talking about a level playing field and these children may not have the capability to overcome the additional emotional baggage of a truly,challenging childhood.
I agree with the introvert versus extrovert, but I do believe that moving around a lot has more of a negative effect on the introvert.
I have always been more introverted and more of a loner. Our large family (6 kids) moved a lot when I was growing up.....I attended 5 different elementary schools.
My dad was in the military part of that time, but part of the time he was a civilian. The moves when he was a civilian was due to the job market in his field. When Dad was in the service we did not move with the same military families, and he kept us away from other military kids as he didnt want us to pick up any of what he perceived as behavioral issues.
While I value many of experiences growing up, including living and attending school in another country, I didn't form many close friendships
because we were rarely in one place to make them. While I learned to be adaptable, and I also learned to be too self sufficient.
It's still difficult for me to form friendships and I am almost 50. I still feel like the "new kid" with little in common with others.
I was a Navy brat growing up and although shy, once I knew you, I was very extroverted. Military kids seemed to be like extended cousins everywhere we lived and we took care of each other. Maybe that made a difference. But almost every military kid I knew growing up, turned out to be successful. Maybe it had to do with the family extension we all were and the military discipline that trickled down in our lives. The hardest thing for me was getting over the feeling of needing to move every couple of years. Guess the study didn't take into account our demographic.
Interesting. I am an introvert who moved a lot, but I credit the moves for forcing me to become more adaptable. I have achieved more and enjoy more life satisfaction because of the skills I had to develop due to the moves than I believe I would have experienced had I lived in one place.
It was traumatic at the time, but I think it was a benefit to me overall. I will say that I have fewer long-term close friendships, though. It is hard to maintain closeness over distance and time.
I have to agree with a point that NLT touched on. The article references "introverts" several times throughout the study, yet rarely mentions the negative (or positive) outcomes to those who are labeled "extroverts". I'm an Army brat who moved to 30 times to 18 different schools and while I can certainly agree with some of the negatives, there were/are positives as well. Apparently, this report/study is another example of biased outlook.
One thing mentioned in the article stands out–personality is a strong contributor to the outcome. Personality is not well understood, but is apparently partially genetic, partially developmental, etc. Also, some forms of shyness appear (or disappear) at different ages, so the idea of pure extraversion or introversion also isn't set in stone. My experience was that, as a general rule, military brats learned more often than others to quickly reach out and make friends, even if they were not naturally extraverted. But it's more complex than that, and isn't fully explained by anything we know today.
Totally agree with the (obvious) conclusion. I moved a lot as a child and was very introverted. It was a nightmare for me – I was always the new kid. It wasn't until college that I flourished, since suddenly I was in one place for several years.
As well as I have done since then, my childhood school experience was terrible and left scars that will never completely heal.
You move one of course, and I don't know that many parents have much of a choice. it's not like my parents moved because they liked to travel. It was always money.
The first ones to comment don't even seem to notice that the article is about the effects on an introverted (sensitive?) child. It doesn't say that moving a lot will cause a person to become introverted and therefore have problems. It says that children who are introverted and then have to move to totally new settings will later have is less satisfaction and lower quality of relationships, as a group. It doesn't say anything about children who were naturally extroverted (extraverted I thought but not the spell-checker) to start with.
"The first ones to comment don't even seem to notice that the article is about the effects on an introverted (sensitive?) child"
You read what you wanted to read, The article was about the effects of moving kids PERIOD. The survey involved a cross section of people, not just introverts. Yes the article did go on to state that "personality may play a big role in this" but the article was not about the "effects on an introverted (sensitive) child".
Based on what I observed moving around as a kid, I would say childhood moving is much more prevalent and by greater percentage of the population in North America, than in most other parts of the world, where roots to community is given greater importance, and the need / desire to move is less required.
My husband moved quite often as a child, and he does indeed have difficulties as an adult. His father was well-educated, but missing a gene that makes one take into account the well-being of children and a wife. My husband attended 6 grammar schools (up to grade 8) and two high schools. He has no hometown, and no he was not a military brat. His father moved for the next promotion. I can go home and see people I've known since kindergarten. My husband can visit every place he's lived, and not know a soul. I can see his reticence to make friends even as an adult, despite his career and academic achievements. It's sad really. Others in his family fared differently, however, so part of it depends on personality and circumstances. That it was difficult on my mother-in-law made it more difficult on my husband, as she relied too much on him when he was even a young child.
I was an Army brat and believe that the moving experience in the military is far different than the average civilian moving experience. Kids moving as military brats usually benefit from other children going through the same moving experiences. Military communities help each families and their children acclimate to the new surroundings. I felt moving was fine until I moved as a civilian half way through high school. It was a shocking experience to move into a communicty that had no military. It took nearly two years to figure out where I fit it among kids who had been together since kindergarden.
I am only child who grew up in a one parent home. We moved a lot and my mother worked most of the time. I am extremely out going but spent way to much time on self-analysis. Hated that, I just wanted to be part of big stable family. Through my adult life I have had many friends but never really wanted to get too close, seemed liked time wasted.
I'd have to disagree with this article as well. I've moved all over the world ever since I was born and, while some of the moves weren't as easy as others, I wouldn't trade it for anything. As for the introvert/extrovert issue, I am a very strong introvert and I benefited greatly from moving. It's interesting these ideas are common with people who haven't moved a lot. I'd like to know how much of this was actual study and how much of it was projecting preconceived ideas on to study data.
YET ANOTHER REASERCHER(S) TRYING TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES. REASERCHERS AND PEOPLE WHO CONDUCTS STUDIES WILL FALSEFY DATA IN ORDER TO ARRIVE AT A DESIRED RESULT. AND IF CAUGHT ALL THE HAVE TO DO IS SAY THEY MADE A MISTAKE, OR FAILED TO INCLUDE SOME DATA. BY THEN ITS TOO LATE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY IT.
YET ANOTHER REASERCHER(S) TRYING TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES. REASERCHERS AND PEOPLE WHO CONDUCTS STUDIES WILL FALSEFY DATA IN ORDER TO ARRIVE AT A DESIRED RESULT"
Disagree with the conclusions of this article all you want, but how the heck do you know they "falsified" data to arrive at a desired result. I would wager that if a larger more comprehensive study was done, even numerous studies, they would all come to the same conclusion. Namely, that while personality of the child plays a role in the outcome, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, children of all personality types are negatively impacted by frequent moving. I would also like to see two studies, civilian and "army brat" with compared results.
PS – don't shout, all capital letters does not make your comments more pertinent, it just makes your mistakes easier to notice.
We are international teachers who raised our 2 daughters in 5 different countries. One daughter was clearly an extrovert and the other more of an introvert. However, from my observation of them both as adults, they have surrounded themselves with a wide circle of intimate friends. They are secure in their relationships and culturally sensitive. I am so happy they have become such beautiful confident women. In my opinion, the family is a critical factor in how child fare in multiple moves. We are a happy, loving, and supportive family who eagerly looked forward to each new cultural experience. As a teacher, I've seem many children who don't have much of a relationship with their parents- they don't talk, they don't feel loved and secure, because their parents don't take the time. School is not supported with parental interest- they have a tutor to take care of that. A child's healthy life requires home and school parent-teacher partnerships. These are the kids who suffer.
I think the important factor is the stability of the family unit. As an Army brat, I moved at least every 2-3 years (sometimes abroad), but we expected that. Each friend knew either I or he/she would be moving at some point so though sad about it, expected it. I still keep in touch with some of them (and I'm 51) and have found that brats tend to be open-minded and understand different cultures better (whether foreign or regional in America). My family was stable and I had a sibling who helped bridge getting used to a new place – all in all, I think it was a great experience. Going to college was just another adventure – I was surprised how many students had separation issues. I also think it helps with being a risk-taker...maybe taking the job on the other coast or internationally without being afraid of leaving what's familiar. In my adult life, I didn't move much and my kids lived in the same area. I don't think their experience is superior to mine. I find it rather humorous when parents freak out about redistricting school districts – their kids can still visit their friends! It's not such a bad thing to start out somewhere new – sometimes it's an advantage to "reinvent" oneself – if you were the goony kid in elementary school, you can leave that behind. I've seen how a label can stay with a kid throughout his/her childhood.
Whether these studies were done or not ; I come from a family of 5 girls and just counted how many times weve moved in the past 25 years and it was 18. It was very difficult childhood; we could not keep many things because we only had room for our clothes. My parents NEVER had money and still don't. I am now an adult and have owned a home for 13 years. Unfortunately, 3 of my sisters have fallen into the moving every so many months for the past 15 years. My sisters have all had problems keeping a job, friendships, relationships and insecurity issues. They cannot keep a bank account because of poor credit and can never seem to get ahead.
I want to say I decided I did not want to live this way and come very far from how I had grown up. It is a vicious cycle to get out of.
I'm a Navy brat and we moved a few times growing up. It was fine for my sisters who are both more outgoing than I am. I think some of the people who posted comments need to pay closer attention to what the article is saying. And I think there is a difference if you moved and lived on base versus off base. On base, you get to meet new kids who have moved a lot just like yourself, and you get that support. Off base, it's much harder to fit in, especially being introverted. It did cause self esteem issues with me.
Thanks to a military father and divorced parents living in separate states, I moved more times that I ca remember and until I was in my 30's, never had an address longer than a year or so. Did I like it growing up? Yes and no. Mostly depended on the school. Sometimes I was sad to go and sometimes knowing I only had a year at best was the only thing that kept me going. As an adult, I find I love moving around. I moved to Europe in 1994, to India in 2007 and am about to move to China for a year in two weeks. Moving around gave me an appreciation for other people, races religions and ideals, while also allowing me to experience different cultures, celebrations, traditions, and learn new languages. I am not saying everyone is built to move around a lot, but for me, it has been amazing and I don't want my life to be spent in a a small space... I want to see the world, and the more I see, the more I want to see. It's a wonderful place, and if I had not moved around as a child, I would not have had the courage to pick up and move abroad basically on a moment's notice...
I have to agree with this study. I was forced to move frequently as a child, and now that I'm older and wiser, I can see the negative effects it had on me. I was probably born an extrovert, but moving frequently led me to become more of an introvert, because at certain ages it's hard to make friends - especially when you're the new kid coming into a class where the children have all known each other for a long time. I also think moving around instilled a fear in me of getting close to people, because I was afraid I'd somehow "lose" them. My husband, on the other hand, lived in the same house his entire childhood and is much more outgoing, secure, and self-confident than I am.
I agree. I moved every year for four years straight from the time I was 6 until I was 10. I became quite independent (like others I came to a point where it was difficult to develop close friends; I became cold and calloused to the point I couldn't approach my girlfriend who was crying because I was moving). My mother decided that she didn't want that to happen again. My dad moved as a result of business transfers or change of jobs. I was neither outgoing nor introvert. I would respond well to others, but I wasn't overly assertive. I think the period in your life when you are moving makes a difference. My sister was not in school when we were moving so it didn't affect her. It may be that it wasn't in me, but I just couldn't relate to girls who were prissy. I wondered now and then that maybe I wasn't exposed to enough other girls for prissiness to rub off on me. I was a tomboy and enjoyed it. I am married and have two teens. They fortunately have not had to move much while in school. My son once and my daughter never. My husband lived in the same house from k-12. They will truly never understand how moving affects a person socially and psychologically. I still sort of have a Que Sera Sera attitude about it. I have a friend who I have been friends with for about 7-8 years (it is hard to visit and do things with girl friends when you both have families). My friend and her family may be moving and I am not sure how I am going to handle that. She is a warm, emotional, dramatic friend so it will probably be an emotional experience. However, if she were cool and aloof then I probably would be also.
At age 57 now, I have to agree with the article. I remember vividly all of our moves and finally my parent's divorce.
My wife was a Army Brat and moved allot, while I come from a stationary home in a very rural town. She cannot maintain a working relationship and causes a disruptive behavior every 6 mons where she works. Its almost like she creates the need to move out. She does not make lasting friendships but does have long term very far away friendships. She managed to drive my friends away. There is allot more too, but I think your on the right track with your study.
I was an Air Force kid, oldest of three, and the longest we ever lived in one house was three years–a standard "tour" length. I remember the move during the summer between 4th and 5th grade being hard and my mother trying to appease me that living closer to San Francisco we'd go to A's games. Never did.
I made friends easily enough, but always felt like an outsider, so I didn't develop what one would consider deep lifelong friendships. And this is a skill I never learned. (My brother and sister pretty much followed this same pattern). Of all the many people I've ever known, there is only one woman I met at the age of 16, who I've visited a few times throughout the years–and can still contact, who I consider a lifelong friend. But we live on opposite sides of the country and rarely call. I just know I can.
I still (at 46) have not lived in one house longer than about three years. I'm easy-going with new co-workers, but I seem to develop acquaintances, not friendships, and might even be a little standoffish (considered a loner) because I expect to leave the current situation eventually so I don't invest any (unnecessary) time into building up friendships.
It's all trade-offs. For the most part I've really enjoyed a life of travel and meeting so many different people. I think I'm well-adapted to change and can easily bounce back when things don't go right. In my work I'm a specialist at figuring out solutions to unanticipated obstacles.
But there is something enviable about someone who's had the same friends since they were in third grade, the connection they have with others, having friends they can depend on to always be there. It seems quaint to me to have lived in the same house one's "whole life," which also seems the root of a naiveté to those I've met who were not accustomed to life on the move where one has to think quickly on their feet and don’t know how to work with some of the weirdness of the world. It's there I feel on top of the game. But the people who have a hometown generally have someone to call to commiserate with, someone to go home to.
I lived in the Ohio town I was born all of six months, but most of my life has been spent all over N. California. I don't know where I would put a gravestone or why I would go through the trouble. I have no bond with any one town.
As an active duty military member, my daughter, since birth, is about to complete her 6th move and she just turned 14 this year. I totally believe its harder on military kids due to the friendships they leave behind. For years she use to give other kids gifts just to make friends because she knew no other way for others to like her, it was sad. Now being a teenager she knows better. As far as adulthood, I expect her to become more adapted to new environments since she has moved a lot and new friends will be easy to make.
As a parent who moved her daughter around for about 10 years with job transfers, I can see how it affected my daughter. My daughter was a calm baby and a good sleeper until I first moved her at 13 months old. After that, bedtime and separations became emotional battles where I had to come up with different tactics to relax and calm her. Right up until our last move into this house which we have now occupied for 14 years, she was anxious about getting used to calling this home "because we're only going to move again." She became such a homebody that she only considered colleges in our city area. Some children do not do well with rapid and frequent changes. To lump all children into one generalization about whether or not they should manage rapid and frequent change with emotional stability is unfair to each individual child.
I have to agree with the findings. I was and am a very shy person prone to depression. If you count preschool-12th grade I went to 8 different schools. I never made friends easily and by the time I did we'd move again. I am not a military brat, we were poor and usually moved due to economics. My younger sister is an extrovert and is still friends with many people she went to school with. She was in 5th grade when we finally stopped moving around and she was able to go through high school with all the same classmates.
Clearly the circumstances of the moves needs to be identified in this study....Those of us in the armed forces often do not have a choice with multiple moves. It's a part of our lifestyle and it's all in what you make of it!!! A study like this will only give fuel to uneducated comments from others. Please define the group who this study was conducted on!
The data that this research has shown is quite true for some kids, in todays time some kids are forced to move quite a bit due to unfortunate or uncontrollable circumstances. Also parents today have less time to spend with kids thus resulting in the introverted kids inability to adjust to new surroundings, the circumstances however would be different if the kids have a very tight knit and supportive family however there are some parents that due not have that sort of time.
As a child of a career military man moving every 18 months or so was very difficult for me. I was an undersized, unattractive boy and was picked on unmercifully every time we moved to a new place, I was considered a bully's dream. It has affected me my whole life and made me think of people in a negative light and also turned me into a bit of a loner. I am so use to people hurting me that my opinion of the human race is very negative. Of course if you are on the football team or a cheerleader or popular moving every year or so wouldn't be such a big deal.
This article is absolutely content-free and poor reporting by yet another superficial CNN correspondant. The research is defective and as such should not have been reported in the first place. If CNN continues to try to emulate the sensationalism of FOX News, more people are going to tune out.
Maybe we didn't move every 2 years, but I moved around plenty enough. I agree with this survey. I'm 35 and unmarried. I also realized recently that I do many other things in my life where I just sort of bounce around and don't manage to establish anything. It seems to me that a lot of people I know who have life long friends and who have fewer problems making new friends are people who lived in one place for most of their lives. Many of those people have the friend from kindergarten who is like a sister. As for me (and other people I know who moved around a lot as a kid), they have a hard time establishing anything of any depth.
I moved twice as a child and they both crushed me and it took me a long time to regain my sense of happiness as I was introverted and felt liek an outcast. I wish I wouldve stayed in one spot at least after the first move so i could say that the people I graduated high school with were the people I grew up with and had strong bonds with. I know that wasnt in the cards for me but it wouldve changed alot and I know that although my dad, who worked for the govt. was doing what he thought was best for us, he knows what it did too me and he has appologized. My thing is, if your gonna have a job that requires you too move alot, DONT HAVE KIDS!!!! My dad was an army brat and he is now realizing after seeing what it did too me, it's negative affects. You shouldnt subject your children to the duress and depression just to better your career. Because like my parents, they didnt see what it did too me till after the fact, and I know they wish they didn't. A job is not worth your child's happiness.
I was also an Army brat from the time I was born until I was 14 years old. Yep it was hard leaving friends.. but some how I managed to make new ones. Looking back I can still get in touch with the loss of my best friends..about 5 that I recall. What I remember the most , however, is the privilege of living in special places.. Japan and Germany are my fondest memories. As far as how I turned out as an adult.. well, who is to say what is 'normal' ? I am the oldest of 9 kids (8 born while we were military). We were all different as kids as well as in our adult lives. I think it all depends on the personality of the individual and the nurturing received at home how anyone turns out.
That all said I do understand the line of thought that it could have negative affects on young children to be uprooted often... but if it's handled well I think they adjust. I seem to have.
People are either introverted, extroverted, or just normal. Everyone is different. Military people have the support of other kids in their same boat. I was not military, but moved a lot, mostly to small towns where people knew each other for a long time. I was VERY close to my mom, she was supportive, and didn't want to move me, circumstances however did not work that way. I was shy to begin with, and moving 4 times between 6-9th grade as a girl DID NOT HELP! I had MAJOR problems each time I moved, including the 2 times when I was even younger. I agree with this study 100% for my situation, but situations are different, as are people. Some people flourish, others do not. I certainly did not, and feel like I am still showing effects of it today. My husband and I intend to find a good home before our son starts school and staying there barring anything out of our control.
It seems to me the circumstances and reasons for frequent moves would also play a large role in how children respond. I am an army brat and my experiences with our very frequent moves were great–but there was always our "military family" in place to help get us situated.
I am a Navy Veteran and my kids have moved all over the world. They have met many wonderful people, experienced many different cultures and gone been blessed with tons of friends. I will say that the older they got the moves were harder on them but, they knew that this was a part of life. When I retired they cried. They didn't want it to end. This was the life they knew. They still keep in touch with all their old friends, made new ones and ready to go on to college when they graduate. Home is not a building or a place, home is the people inside that building home and that place.
I personally think, it's the parents attitude about the move and the circumstances that make you move. There are plenty of things parents can do to make the move successful and it doesn't cost a lot of money. Ask all those military families who make it work day in and day out. Their some great secrets out there and society could learn from them.
I also was raised an Air Force Child/Brat, have been told not to use the brat because it has military implications, from birth till 17 yrs of age. Moved at times every year, a couple places stayed 3 yrs. I know of two other people like me who retired to same city. They both had families and normal except one died of cancer a month ago. I did not, was a either a shy person or God did not want me to get a spouse, at times I think it was a blessing. Well hows that reflect your statistics.
It depends upon the personality of the child and the timing. My daughter took the brunt of the moves, and is quieter and has trouble with making friends. However she is at the same time outspoken and confident with academics and work.
My son moved when he was very young and not as conscious of the disruption. He is super outgoing and finds it an enjoyable challenge to meet new people.
The moving affected me 50/50, there were benefits and also painful goodbyes. I think I would have accomplished more if we had lived in one place, so that I wasn't constantly starting over from scratch.
We moved a lot. By the time I started sixth grade I had gone to five different schools. I was pretty anxious. Anyway, the weird thing is that our parents wouldn't let us tell anyone we were moving until just before we left. I remember leaving one place and my parents wouldn't let me say goodbye to my friends. I was just gone.
i made that fix. thanks for writing in.
I also agree - we moved a few times growing up and I still resent the fact that at my graduation I wasn't in any pictures until my Freshman year. While I had friends, I didn't have that bond as the other kids did who has spent their whole life together. I would say that the timing of the move as well as the circumstances would definitely play into this study. We moved when I was in 6th grade, 7th grade and 9th grade. Probably the hardest times to try to make new friends. To this day I still only have one really close friend and it was someone I met during my college years.
As a child in a military family I did move a lot. I made new friends at all points in my life and kept many old ones. I found that I am much more adaptable than many people who did not move and can better roll with the punches of life. I am a bit curious as to why extroversion equals happiness. I am both happy and introverted.
Despite all the anecdotes provided in the comments, the study finding are probably valid. However, the study apparently did not control for socio-economic status (social class) of the children's families. If families with lower SES were more likely to move (which I suspect was true), the negative adult outcomes might be more related to that than to the move itself. In other words, SES might have confounded the apparent association of moving with negative outcomes. Just a thought.