The Difference a Home Makes: Examining the Relationship of Housing Conditions over Time on Childhood Development Outcomes

Tina M. Park, Brown University

This project is interested in exploring and describing housing in a more complex way, specifically considering the how housing conditions over time affect childhood development over time. Rather than looking at a single snapshot of a child’s housing conditions – whether parents are renters or owners, the unit is in poor physical condition, if it is overcrowded in the unit, the frequency of moves, and so on - this project will explore how the cumulative effects of dynamic housing conditions affect childhood development outcomes using latent class growth analysis techniques. Using data from the Fragile Families Study, it will first determine which housing condition trajectories are more commonly experienced by children in fragile families. Then, it will examine the impact of different housing trajectories on childhood development outcomes such as health and cognitive development.