Moving house: Attachment, the social ecological context and the process of transition and grief

Life and childhood can be viewed from a number of perspectives, but personally I like to see each child as part of a whole system within which they interact, learn, develop, adapt and exist. This is known as the Social Ecological Model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), where the individual is centred and surrounded by those closest to them (family and friends), those who they interact with sometimes (settings, schools, gp etc), and those whose decisions affect their lives (government, society). The diagram below shows how this works:

A huge part of a child's wellbeing is for this model to remain stable; and this is where attachment becomes vitally important. Bowlby (1907-1990) came up with the theory that having secure attachments to others is part of human survival, and that children need at least one secure attachment in order to feel safe and to enable the child to explore their environment, knowing there is someone to turn to when they are in need. When a child's housing is stable, it enables these relationships to remain stable, giving the child a chance to develop good, strong attachments to their caregivers and to developmentally thrive. Personally, I also think that children develop attachments to environments and possessions, as experience tells me that children struggle when their environment changes (and even more so for some children with autistic spectrum condition).

Therefore, the issue of moving house is actually quite a big thing. Not only is it important that a child feels safe with their attachment figure, but that they also feel safe when in a familiar context. Moving house can disrupt this attachment and cause the child to react in a number of ways. Coley and Kull (2016) designed a study to see how children's cognitive abilities were affected by moving house; their study actually found that although cognitive abilities were slightly affected, the main issues were emotional and behavioural. They suggested that having to establish new routines, new support systems within the immediate community and changes in family dynamics as a result of moving could have a negative impact on children's emotions, specifically because of the disruption to the child's attachments.

As humans, we go through a process of transition that we as adults can see and understand quite clearly if we look carefully at the following graph:

However, children who are too young to express their emotions fully, with limited vocabulary and an inability to understand the situation they are going through will take a lot longer to get through this process than those of us who have experience and understand what is happening. Now have a look at this image showing the cycle of grief, and see the similarities:

So, in effect, when a child moves house, not only are they going to struggle to maintain their strong attachments, but will also be going through a process of grieving for the previous environment. This is not to say the process is long and arduous for every child, as for some who are articulate and creative thinkers will whizz through this so quickly you barely notice they've been affected at all! But it is worth thinking about how to approach a transition such as this, in order to support the child through this process.

Linking this to my previous post about housing statistics, how renting is on the rise and those renting tend to move house more frequently than homeowners, this becomes a very important issue. During my study I will be carefully observing the attachments children have with their caregivers and I hope to gain a better understanding of what we (parents and practitioners) can actually do to avoid children dragging through the transition process, or remaining at the low point for too long. If they are likely to move house more frequently, they need to learn their own coping mechanisms which is the development of resilience - a subject for another day!

References

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Republished in 2006).

Coley, R. L., & Kull, M. (2016). Cumulative, Timing-Specific, and Interactive Models of Residential Mobility and Children’s Cognitive and Psychosocial Skills. Child Development, 87(4), 1204–1220. http://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12535

Housing statistics in the UK

Today I have been looking at the English Housing Survey 2014-15 dataset, showing the percentages of families who rent privately, socially and also first time buyers. The analysis shows a comparison to the previous two waves of data collected in 2010-11 and 2004-5.

The interesting thing I have found and its implications for my research is this; renting (either socially or privately) is on the increase, in comparison to those buying homes, which are decreasing. The most important statistic about this is that the number of years families remain in their properties is far fewer in social rental properties than in owned properties, and even fewer years in privately rented properties. Here's a quote from the Social Rented Sector Report:

'In 2014-15, 39% of all social renters had lived at their current property for less than five years, very similar to the proportion in 1994-95 (40%). Social renters had lived at their current address for an average of 11.4 years, in comparison with 4.0 years for private renters and 17.5 years for owner occupiers.' (DCLG, 2015)

So if renting is on the increase, and renting means moving house more frequently, what does this mean for the UK's children? To me, it means this research is all the more important.

Reviewing the literature

So this is starting at the very beginning. I need to unpick the keywords to search for literature. This small mindmap is just an example of how I have begun this process! Yesterday I attended a session at the university library where we were shown the most effective ways of searching for and finding the literature we need to review. I'm quite lucky that my search terms are so specific, because it narrows down the literature to that which is relevant to my study. To write an effective literature review, you need to find ALL of the articles/books etc that relate to your subject, including previously submitted PhD theses! After a search of the theses library I am happy to say that my topic has not been studied before for a PhD so I already feel like I'm gazing into a gap in the literature - although previous journal articles show studies into this topic, they do not directly consult with young children, so this is my specific niche.

There are so many more things I need to look at other than these particular terms, because at the end of my review I will be making a case for my study. This means I need to also find ethnographic case studies involving children and how much richer the data can be using this methodology. Every aspect of my study needs to be backed up by previous literature, so my search will take time and lots of effort. I hope to share my findings throughout this process so if you are interested in this topic, please do follow it.

My story and the child's story

Today has been full of lightbulb moments – well, not really moments of clarity but questions arising in my mind about the reality of what I am studying. Mainly, the idea that the majority of research about childhood is either quantitative and carried out via parent surveys, or qualitative and based in the child’s childcare setting. I’ve been searching for specific literature around the theme of young children’s transitions, and all that’s coming up is the transition from preschool to school, and from reception to key stage one. This makes me ask the question – where is the research about other transitions? About things that happen at home? Where are the qualitative, in depth case studies about how children feel and behave at home with their parents? So, I wonder if research appears to be easier to carry out within settings, because the practitioners are aware of the ethics surrounding research (or at least they should!) and that it is easier to access children within settings than through their families? To me, this disempowers the parental role in the child’s life, and while practitioners in settings do play an important role with young children, it is the families who will be the main support for the child when they move house. This should steer my own research towards seeing children in their homes, but if I’m aiming to create case studies then I could see them in a variety of places to gather a bigger picture of who they are and what their life is like.

Maybe I haven’t looked far enough yet, or used the correct key words. Maybe I’m making an assumption. To be honest I would like to think that I’m wrong, and the answers are out there to be found, because as a parent this offends me! Approaching this study with a background of being both a parent and a practitioner, I can see how important it is to involve all of these people; after all, the child’s world is based on their social ecology and there’s no getting away from that. And my role as a researcher is also based on my social ecology and my experiences, which there is also no getting away from. I have to keep this in mind when I do finally get out there in the field, because my findings will be the child’s world and my own intertwined to create my version of their story. I just hope I can do it justice and enable their voice to be heard.

Developing an ontological awareness

A few weeks ago I felt mildly confident that I knew what I was doing in terms of research and how I intend to carry my project out. However, in the time since, I have felt my mind expanding into new and unknown territory. It is equally exciting and terrifying! The main thing being that all of my research so far has been based on what other people have said. I have ensured that every time I make a claim, I back it up with something I have read – and only things I have read. This level of study gives me permission to go beyond this; to question the very nature of research itself and gain a critical and sceptic mind with regard to reviewing literature and drawing conclusions.

Who has the authority to say exactly what a research project should look like? Who knows what is correct and what is wrong? Is there a solid distinction between the two? Each research project is unique to the researcher; I am beginning to see that actually my project will be the story of my relationships with the children involved, and my own interpretation of their interactions with me and with the resources I provide. There is no wrong answer; I will look at my data and determine a particular way of thinking about it, while someone else could look at the same data and draw different conclusions; it depends on the perspective from which it is being observed.

So for this reason, I have to very carefully select the previous data that I draw on to set up my project. Weak studies will not give me good enough reason to proceed; I need a sound basis for following this lead, and my literature review will need to give that argument, that reasoning as to why my project is so important. Why do young children need supporting when they move house? Who determines that they are struggling through transitions? How is a struggle defined? Do struggles such as this promote resilience, and should I not even get involved but allow nature to take its course and help to strengthen the children? All of these questions are necessary to ask if I want to get down to the ontological awareness of the situation.