Suicide risk of moving home often as child

IT’S commonly known as one of life’s most stressful events.

But moving house regularly as a child leads to a greater risk of drug addiction, criminality, suicide and premature death, research has revealed.

and the effects were just as marked in wealthy families as poorer ones.

The ‘highest risks were among individuals who moved frequently during early adolescence’, according to the report in the american Journal of preventive Medicine.

every house move increased the risk to mental and physical health, according to researchers from the Centre for Mental health at the University of Manchester.

data from 1.4million children was analysed, looking at how often the children moved from birth until the age of 14. They were then tracked until their early 40s.

Moving house is particularly stressful for children as it often occurs at the same time as another severely stressful event such as parents breaking up or divorcing, the researchers said.

The risk of someone attempting suicide was found to increase with rising age at the time of the move and was markedly higher if there were ‘multiple annual relocations’ during early adolescence – between the ages of 12 and 14.

Children under the age of seven were less affected by moving as they were not yet attending school at that age in denmark, where the study was based.

lead author dr roger Webb said: ‘health and social services, schools, and other public agencies should be vigilant of the psychological needs of relocated adolescents.’