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Housing Crisis

The Housing Crisis and Family Stress

Posted by Brian Rabian on 09/01 at 06:35 PM

More than a decade ago, a report prepared by Housing America and the Boston Medical Center and Children’s Hospital recognized a relationship between housing shortages and numerous negative outcomes for children and families, such as health problems, hunger, and educational delays.

This report focused largely on the growing divide between family income and housing costs in the 1990’s, but current housing issues resulting from failed banking practices and rising unemployment have likely only expanded the risk for families.

Parents are put in the difficult position of not only managing their own stress as they ward off threats to stable housing, but also insuring that their children are protected from information best left to adults. In the service of helping kids feel included in family decision making, parents often put kids in a position of taking on adult worries, in the absence of any real means of affecting change. Maintaining the experience of security and stability so critical to the emotional development of children is one of the greatest challenges facing parents in today’s difficult financial climate. 

Brian Rabian, Ph.D.
Director, Penn State Psychological Clinic
Associate Clinical Professor