Whilst it will come as no shock that our homes have a severe effect on our mental health, recent research has shown that a stable home environment is even more vital to our health than you might think.
Recent research from the university of Sheffield into the consequences of an unstable home environment has highlighted in three separate studies the consequences of the lack of a stable home, across both adults and children.
The link between poor housing and poor health in children and young people:
The Children’s Society define poor housing as “being at risk of multiple house moves that are not through choice, or that are related to poverty“. These conditions have been on the rise due to factors like the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, and surprisingly little research has been done into the effects of these unstable home environments on children.
The loss of stability in a child’s home can cause severe knock-on effects to their day to day lives, even if their familial situation is a safe one. Common effects of children being forced to move regularly or being left homeless for periods of time include weight loss, stunted child development, and poor mental health, which can often manifest in aggression and cause a breakdown of social capabilities.
The research concludes that more care should be taken in order to understand the situation of children who are forced to move numerous times, and improved support needs to be offered to children who are regularly forced to move homes.
Home and Epigenome:
This section of the research discusses the link between housing quality and mental wellbeing, from a scientific perspective. Research was done across a number of subjects that involved taking blood samples, and measuring a process called DNA methylation as a possible mediator between housing conditions and depressive symptoms.
The subjects were grouped into three distinct time points, with mean ages of 28, 29 and 30, and across all 3 time points poor housing quality consistently predicted depressive symptoms in the subjects, as well as DNA methylation mediating the association at ages 29 and 48.
This means that poor and restrictive housing conditions has a strong case as influencing the methylation of the DNA, and causing depressive symptoms for those in the home. Whilst the study focused on only mothers, it’s suggestive that even on a biological level being unsure or feeling unsafe at home can have a negative impact on our mental health.
The biological impact of housing on health
The final piece of research looked into the effects of housing on physical health, specifically how our surroundings influence our ageing. Biological ageing looks at how social factors “get under the skin” and can actually cause changes in our physical health, including increased ageing.
The research found a strong link between an unstable home and increased ageing, with those experiencing negative home environments ageing up to 2.4 weeks longer per each year. This is even more than a former smoker when compared with a nonsmoker.
These negative health effects are seemingly affecting those in different housing situations differently, and in comparison with owning your home outright, those in the private rented sector are the wort effected.
This additional ageing can be put down to three major negative health consequences, which are caused by stressful or low-quality home conditions. These are:
- Immune system suppression/airway constriction
- Vessel restriction/higher blood pressure/blood thickening
- Loss of autonomy/social life/sleep
Even though these factors are a combination of physical effects and the consequence of mental stress, they all compile to place extra stress on the human body, and contribute towards individuals ageing up to an additional 2.4 weeks a year.
