Study: Family Eviction Linked to Poor Health, Hunger in Children and Parents

Nearly 2 million US households are evicted or involuntarily displaced annually, and families with children are at higher risk of eviction, increasing with each additional child. A new study, “Eviction and Household Health and Hardships in Families with Very Young Children,” in the October 2022 Pediatrics (published online Sept. 19) found that eviction is a pediatric and adult health concern. Families who have been forced to move in the past five years were more likely to be in fair or poor health, with children who are more likely to have been admitted to the hospital from the Emergency Room, and mothers more likely to report depressive symptoms. Researchers surveyed 26,441 caregivers in Baltimore, Boston, Little Rock, Philadelphia and Minneapolis and found that 3.9% reported an eviction in the previous five years. Of those evicted, 57% had gone through formal, legal eviction processes, while an additional 43% faced “informal evictions,” which occurred outside of the courts and are often missed in eviction research. The children of families with an eviction history faced many additional struggles, including worse health, developmental delays, homelessness, food insecurity, and inadequate healthcare and childcare. While formal, legal evictions utilize structured processes that can be more easily captured in data, the families who had been evicted informally experience similar negative outcomes but are undercounted in national data. Researchers concluded that robust policy solutions to prevent and mitigate eviction as well as community, health care and other supports are needed for families that face eviction to address health impacts.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.