Abstract
There is an ample body of research demonstrating the link between housing instability and adverse outcomes. The bulk of this research, however, largely relies on broad operationalizations, generally not considering different types of housing instability. This study extends previous research by focusing on adolescents facing a variety of residential events, including moves, imminent threats of eviction and forced relocations, while also considering the significance of distance. Adopting a counterfactual approach, and drawing on unique data on evictions in Sweden alongside a link to longitudinal registers, this study examines the association between housing instability and educational attainment, operationalized as graduation from upper secondary school. Theoretically, the study draws on the family stress model and theory on social capital, the findings providing support for both approaches. Single relocation was found to have a small impact on educational attainment, but forced relocations, repeated relocations and long-distance relocations are of particular significance for understanding the link between housing instability and educational outcomes. The study contributes to an understanding of the roles that different types of residential events play in youths’ educational attainment, and policy implications are discussed.
Highlights
Housing and educational attainment are both salient aspects of youths’ wellbeing and development
Using comprehensive longitudinal Swedish register data, this study investigated if different types of housing instability matter for the probability of graduating from upper secondary school within one year of the expected time of graduation
With reference to the family stress model (FSM), it was hypothesized that eviction threat, without any relocation, has a negative impact on educational attainment
Summary
Housing and educational attainment are both salient aspects of youths’ wellbeing and development. The bulk of this research, conflates different types of residential events, largely relying on broad operationalizations of housing instability, this being likely to obscure important variation. It seems that moving is to a large extent a stressful event that compounds negative outcomes, yet we have little information about the mechanisms at play and the significance of different types of residential strain. The purpose of the present study is to further our understanding of the association between housing instability during youth and educational attainment, conceptualized as graduation from upper secondary school. Housing instability is operationalized as four types of residential events: single relocation (moving once during upper secondary school, without involvement of the Enforcement Agency), repeated relocations (moving at least twice during upper secondary school, without involvement of the Enforcement Agency), imminent threat of eviction (eviction threat was registered with the Enforcement Agency, but was not followed by a move), and forced relocation (eviction threat was registered with the Enforcement Agency, and the youth moved). Based on the supposition that long-distance moves imply greater loss of social resources, the study explores whether the distance moved is of significance
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