Perinatal & Pediatric
The association between high residential mobility and maternal perinatal mental health Katherine Bowers* Katherine Bowers Alonzo Folger Lili Ding
The housing crisis across the U.S. accelerated during the covid-19 pandemic and unstable housing remains a critical obstacle for low-income families. High residential mobility has been associated with poor developmental outcomes in children, potentially due to disruptions in school, medical care, and social support networks. In addition, mobility issues may have an intergenerational effect through stress and the associated emotional health of caregivers who experienced instability. The Pregnancy and Infant Development (PRIDE) Study is a longitudinal birth cohort, nested within a home visiting program that aims to understand how maternal adversity affects child development. We estimated the association between maternal residential mobility and perinatal mental health, a risk factor for poor developmental outcomes in children. Methods. Among n=258 moms, we summarized the mobility experience and employed correlations and linear regression, adjusting for socioeconomic factors, to estimate the association between lifetime residential moves and maternal early adversity (ACEs), discrimination, and the maternal perinatal health constructs of depression and anxiety. Results. Mothers (mean age 24.8 +/-5.6 years) experienced between 0 and 25 moves in their lifetime, averaging .26 +/-.20 moves/year (median = 0.21, or moving residence every 5 years). The Pearson correlation coefficient between moves/year and perinatal depression was r=0.10 (p value=0.08), and anxiety was r=0.13 (p value=0.03). Adjusting for maternal income and education, moves/year was positively associated with perinatal depression (range 0-24; β=4.03, 95% CI: 0.61, 7.44), and anxiety (range: 0-24; β=3.75, 95% CI: 0.62, 0.68). There were also statistically significant associations between lifetime moves and maternal ACEs (range 0-10; β=6.77, 95% CI:5.26, 8.28) and experiencing discrimination (range: 9-50; β=9.30, 95% CI: 3.39, 15.21). Conclusions. The effects of residential mobility are complex. In the PRIDE cohort, an increase in maternal lifetime moves was positively associated with mental health impairment at the time of pregnancy, early adversity, and current experiences of discrimination. Additional analyses are planned to better understand how a mother’s mobility experience affects her perinatal mental health.