The Cumulative Relationship between Housing Instability and Mental Health: Findings from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics

ABSTRACT

Housing instability has been known to be a key determinant of mental health. However, previous studies have focused heavily on examining the relationship between housing instability and mental health cross-sectionally with single-point-in-time measures and the cumulative nature of housing instability that could occur repeatedly over time has been largely overlooked. By analyzing a panel dataset uniquely constructed based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and other datasets, this paper examines whether the cumulative association exists between housing instability incidents and mental health. By estimating negative binomial regression models, I found that the more housing instability incidents an individual has been exposed to, the poorer the individual’s mental health is likely to be. In particular, when individuals experience housing instability incidents successively without a period of being stably housed, mental health conditions dramatically deteriorate until the duration of housing instability reaches six years. Also, cumulative exposure to housing instability incidents can lead individuals to critical mental problems, but such associations are not entirely linear. These findings suggest that future policy interventions should ensure that individuals placed at heightened risk of housing instability be proactively housing.

KEYWORDS:

• Housing instability
• anel Study of Income Dynamics
• Mental health
• Cumulative relationship
• Negative binomial regression model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The PSID does not provide a direct measure for doubling up, so two situations are considered doubled-up situations based on available information: (1) where a household did not own or rent a house and lived with at least one nonfamily member or an adult family member who is neither a household head nor a marriage partner, or (2) where a household reported that the household rented a house but paid no rent for the house, and lived with at least one nonfamily member or adult family member who is neither a household head nor a marriage partner.

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Notes on contributors

Seungbeom Kang

Seungbeom Kang is an assistant professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Engineering at Yonsei University. He defines himself as an interdisciplinary social scientist and his research interests encompass understanding various causes and consequences of housing instability, evaluating affordable housing policies, examining the role of stable housing in alleviating urban poverty, and developing ways to expand options for stable housing among low-income renters. He holds a PhD in city and regional planning from the Ohio State University and a master’s degree in urban planning and engineering from Yonsei University.