Want Your Kid to Graduate from High School? Don't Move

Even moving up can harm your kids.

According to a new study, students experiencing at least one move over a twelve-month period have a roughly 50 percent decreased likelihood of obtaining a high school diploma by age 25.

And it's true whether you make a cross-town move or one to a more affluent area.

"Our findings support prior research that demonstrates the strain mobility places on academic attainment after accounting for other academic risk factors,” says lead author Molly Metzger, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, at newswise.com. “Evidence suggests that mobility in adolescence hampers chances of high school graduation regardless of whether youth move to a relatively poorer or less-poor neighborhood."

As part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative survey that followed seventh- to 12th-graders in the mid-1990s into their young-adult years, researchers asked students whether they had moved to a new residence during the previous year.


“This finding is especially relevant to youth transitioning to adulthood who tend to lean on informal supports more than institutional resources,” Metzger adds.

So, if you want your kid to graduate?  Stay put.





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