Predictors and consequences of school mobility in middle childhood.

In this prospective longitudinal study (N = 1094, M age = 5.6 years to M age = 11.1 years), we examined family factors associated with school mobility and then asked if either a move during the previous year or cumulative moves across elementary school were related to child functioning. Family factors were not linked to a recent move or a single move, but changes in family income and household structure did predict higher odds of two or more moves in elementary school. There was no evidence that a recent move or a single move was related to children's academic or social functioning. Effects of two or more moves on child functioning were not significant after controlling for the number of analyses that were conducted. Taken together, school mobility during elementary school did not appear to be a pervasive risk although we were unable to study very high rates of school mobility because of very small sample sizes.

School mobility during childhood predicts psychotic symptoms in late adolescence.

BACKGROUND: Recently, school mobility was identified as a risk factor for psychotic symptoms in early adolescence. The extent to which this risk continues into late adolescence and the trajectories via which this risk manifests remain unexplored. METHODS: Psychotic symptoms in 4,720 adolescents aged 18 were ascertained by trained psychologists using the Psychosis-Like Symptoms Interview. Mothers reported on sociodemographic factors (i.e., family adversity, ethnicity and urbanicity) from pregnancy to 4 years; child's involvement in bullying at age 6-7 years; residential mobility at 11 years and school mobility at 11-12 years. Young people reported on their friendships at 8 years, and antisocial behaviour and cannabis use at 15 years. RESULTS: School mobility across childhood significantly predicted psychotic symptoms at 18 years (adjusted odds ratio = 2.15; 95% confidence intervals = 1.06, 4.40). Within path analysis, school mobility (ß = .183, p = .035), involvement in bullying (ß = .133, p = .013), antisocial behaviour (ß = .052, p = .004), cannabis use (ß = .254, p = .020) and female sex (ß = .420, p < .001) significantly predicted psychotic symptoms. Residential mobility (ß = .375, p < .001), involvement in bullying (ß = .120, p = .022) and poor friendships (ß = .038, p = .014) significantly predicted school mobility. Residential mobility indirectly increased the risk of psychotic symptoms via school mobility (ß = .069, p = .041). CONCLUSIONS: Children who move schools often are more likely to have experienced peer problems. School mobility, in turn, appears to be a robust marker for psychotic symptoms in late adolescence. Clinicians and teachers should consider school mobility as an important risk indicator for both peer problems and psychopathology.

Incorporating Mobility in Growth Modeling for Multilevel and Longitudinal Item Response Data.

Multilevel data often cannot be represented by the strict form of hierarchy typically assumed in multilevel modeling. A common example is the case in which subjects change their group membership in longitudinal studies (e.g., students transfer schools; employees transition between different departments). In this study, cross-classified and multiple membership models for multilevel and longitudinal item response data (CCMM-MLIRD) are developed to incorporate such mobility, focusing on students' school change in large-scale longitudinal studies. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of incorrectly modeling school membership in the analysis of multilevel and longitudinal item response data. Two types of school mobility are described, and corresponding models are specified. Results of the simulation studies suggested that appropriate modeling of the two types of school mobility using the CCMM-MLIRD yielded good recovery of the parameters and improvement over models that did not incorporate mobility properly. In addition, the consequences of incorrectly modeling the school effects on the variance estimates of the random effects and the standard errors of the fixed effects depended upon mobility patterns and model specifications. Two sets of large-scale longitudinal data are analyzed to illustrate applications of the CCMM-MLIRD for each type of school mobility.

Reducing School Mobility: A Randomized Trial of a Relationship-Building Intervention.

Student turnover has many negative consequences for students and schools, and the high mobility rates of disadvantaged students may exacerbate inequality. Scholars have advised schools to reduce mobility by building and improving relationships with and among families, but such efforts are rarely tested rigorously. A cluster-randomized field experiment in 52 predominantly Hispanic elementary schools in San Antonio, TX, and Phoenix, AZ, tested whether student mobility in early elementary school was reduced through Families and Schools Together (FAST), an intervention that builds social capital among families, children, and schools. FAST failed to reduce mobility overall but substantially reduced the mobility of Black students, who were especially likely to change schools. Improved relationships among families help explain this finding.

Homelessness and child protection involvement: Temporal links and risks to student attendance and school mobility.

BACKGROUND: The experience of homelessness and child protection involvement pose risks to children's school success. Elucidating processes by which these interrelated systems affect child well-being is important for guiding policy and practice. OBJECTIVE: This study examines the temporal relation between emergency shelter or transitional housing use and child protection involvement among school-aged children. We evaluated effects of both risk indicators on school attendance and school mobility. PARTICIPANT AND SETTING: Using integrated administrative data, we identified 3278 children (ages 4 to 15) whose families used emergency or transitional housing in Hennepin and Ramsey County of Minnesota during the 2014 and 2015 academic years. A propensity-score-matched comparison group of 2613 children who did not use emergency or transitional housing. METHOD: Through a series of logistic regressions and generalized estimating equations, we tested the temporal associations of emergency/transitional housing and child protection involvement as well as how both experiences affected school attendance and mobility. RESULTS: Experiences of emergency or transitional housing often proceeded or occurred concurrently with child protection involvement and increased the likelihood of child protection services. Emergency or transitional housing and child protection involvement posed risks for lower school attendance and greater school mobility. CONCLUSIONS: A multisystem approach to assist families across social services may be important for stabilizing children's housing and bolstering their success at school. A two-generation approach focused on residential and school stability and enhancing family resources could boost adaptive success of family members across contexts.

Reprint of: Homelessness and child protection involvement: Temporal links and risks to student attendance and school mobility.

BACKGROUND: The experience of homelessness and child protection involvement pose risks to children's school success. Elucidating processes by which these interrelated systems affect child well-being is important for guiding policy and practice. OBJECTIVE: This study examines the temporal relation between emergency shelter or transitional housing use and child protection involvement among school-aged children. We evaluated effects of both risk indicators on school attendance and school mobility. PARTICIPANT AND SETTING: Using integrated administrative data, we identified 3278 children (ages 4 to 15) whose families used emergency or transitional housing in Hennepin and Ramsey County of Minnesota during the 2014 and 2015 academic years. A propensity-score-matched comparison group of 2613 children who did not use emergency or transitional housing. METHOD: Through a series of logistic regressions and generalized estimating equations, we tested the temporal associations of emergency/transitional housing and child protection involvement as well as how both experiences affected school attendance and mobility. RESULTS: Experiences of emergency or transitional housing often proceeded or occurred concurrently with child protection involvement and increased the likelihood of child protection services. Emergency or transitional housing and child protection involvement posed risks for lower school attendance and greater school mobility. CONCLUSIONS: A multisystem approach to assist families across social services may be important for stabilizing children's housing and bolstering their success at school. A two-generation approach focused on residential and school stability and enhancing family resources could boost adaptive success of family members across contexts.

Factors and experiences that influence school mobility for autistic students: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Autistic students are reported to move schools at a high rate, but little is understood about why this is happening. What is known is that the effects of school mobility can negatively impact both short- and long-term outcomes, particularly the child's learning, behaviours, mental health and school retention. AIMS: The aim of this systematic review was to synthesize the research on factors and experiences which influence the family's decision to move their autistic child to another school. METHODS: A protocol was registered with PROPERO (ID: CRD4202120794). Searches were conducted with ERIC, Scopus and Web of Science and seven studies were identified. RESULTS: The studies focused on three main types of mobility: mainstream-to-mainstream school moves, moving between mainstream and segregated schools, and moving between mainstream and homeschool. Parents' concerns for their child's learning, social experiences and mental health, as well as their own interactions with their child's school, influenced the decision to leave. Whilst there were similarities across the studies for reasons to move, there were also differences based upon the settings between which students moved. CONCLUSION: The findings highlight the need for further research across all school mobility types to better understand the reasons underpinning high rates of school mobility for autistic students.

Children's early school attendance and stability as a mechanism through which homelessness is associated with academic achievement.

Unfortunately, family homelessness is a crisis in the United States. The majority of families experiencing homelessness are headed by single mothers and half of children who experience homelessness are less than five years of age. In the current study, we investigated whether children's school attendance and stability mediated the association between early experiences of homelessness (in infancy and toddlerhood) with children's school performance on standardized assessments of math and English language arts administered in the spring of third grade in a sample of children of young mothers. We used a person-centered analytic technique (i.e., repeated measures latent class analysis) to identify three classes of children's patterns of school attendance and stability from kindergarten through third grade that consisted of (a) High Absenteeism, (b) Decreasing Absenteeism, and (c) Low Absenteeism classes. Early experiences of homelessness were directly and indirectly associated with math, but not English language arts scores, through the three identified classes. The results of the current study have important implications for young children who experience homelessness and suggest promoting school attendance as one avenue to support academic achievement. In addition, supporting families and children early (i.e., before they begin pre-kindergarten) will be key in ensuring that young children who experience homelessness are successful in educational environments.

Multilevel analysis of BMI growth trajectories of US school children: Features and risk factors.

Childhood obesity continues to be a major focus of public health efforts in the United States, where nearly 17% of children are obese. In this study, we focused on two significant features that characterize U.S. society-school mobility and a single-parent family structure-and how they relate to childhood obesity/overweight. Using a nationally representative sample from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K) class of 1998, we examined the body mass index (BMI) growth trajectories of children to determine how these two key features interacted with demographic characteristics of gender, race/ethnicity, and socio-economic status (SES), which are known to be associated with BMI. We analyzed five waves of data from kindergarten through fifth grade of 9041 students applying a two-level hierarchical linear model (HLM). Results indicated that children who changed schools more than two times from kindergarten to fifth grade had higher BMI growth trajectories compared to children who changed only once or did not change schools. To our knowledge, no prior studies have examined this association. Results also indicated children in single-parent families were more likely to have higher BMI growth trajectories compared to children in two-parent families. Although both school mobility and family structure had an impact on children's BMI, we found that family structure had a larger impact than school mobility. Being in a two-parent family was a protective factor for children; that is, even if children in two-parent families moved schools twice or more, they still maintained a healthy BMI on average. For children in single-parent families, however, moving schools tended to have a greater, negative impact on their BMI statuses.

Teacher-child relationships in the context of poverty: the role of frequent school mobility.

Children's relationships with their teachers are critical for classroom-based learning, but children growing up in poverty may be at risk for lower-quality relationships with teachers. Little is known about how changing schools, one poverty-related risk, affects teacher-child relationships. Using growth curve models that control for a host of other poverty-related risks, this study explores the association between children changing schools frequently (defined as three or more school moves) between preschool and third grade and the quality of their relationships with their teachers over these five years in a low-income, ethnic-minority sample. Children who frequently moved schools were reported to be less close to their teachers in third grade and experienced steeper declines in closeness than children who did not change schools frequently. Moreover, the effects of frequent school mobility at third grade were robust to other poverty-related risks, including residential mobility, parental education risk, family income, and single-parent households. Changing schools was unrelated to children's conflict with teachers. We discuss these findings in the context of policies that support students' transitions when changing schools.

School mobility and prospective pathways to psychotic-like symptoms in early adolescence: a prospective birth cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Social adversity and urban upbringing increase the risk of psychosis. We tested the hypothesis that these risks may be partly attributable to school mobility and examined the potential pathways linking school mobility to psychotic-like symptoms. METHOD: A community sample of 6,448 mothers and their children born between 1991 and 1992 were assessed for psychosocial adversities (i.e., ethnicity, urbanicity, family adversity) from birth to 2 years, school and residential mobility up to 9 years, and peer difficulties (i.e., bullying involvement and friendship difficulties) at 10 years. Psychotic-like symptoms were assessed at age 12 years using the Psychosis-like Symptoms Interview (PLIKSi). RESULTS: In regression analyses, school mobility was significantly associated with definite psychotic-like symptoms (odds ratio [OR] =1.60; 95% CI =1.07-2.38) after controlling for all confounders. Within path analyses, school mobility (probit coefficient [ß] = 0.108; p = .039), involvement in bullying (ß = 0.241; p < .001), urbanicity (ß = 0.342; p = .016), and family adversity (ß = 0.034; p < .001) were all independently associated with definite psychotic-like symptoms. School mobility was indirectly associated with definite psychotic-like symptoms via involvement in bullying (ß = 0.018; p = .034). CONCLUSIONS: School mobility is associated with increased risk of psychotic-like symptoms, both directly and indirectly. The findings highlight the potential benefit of strategies to help mobile students to establish themselves within new school environments to reduce peer difficulties and to diminish the risk of psychotic-like symptoms. Awareness of mobile students as a possible high-risk population, and routine inquiry regarding school changes and bullying experiences, may be advisable in mental health care settings.