Childhood Emotional Abuse and Housing Insecurity in Young Adulthood: The Moderating Role of Parental Financial Support

Background:While there is increasing evidence that childhood emotional abuse is associated with a range of health and psychological challenges in adulthood, we still know little about how it may relate to housing insecurity in young adulthood. Emotional abuse may be associated with adult housing insecurity because it may weaken personal or social resources that may be needed to attain stable housing. However, the presence of social resources may buffer individuals from housing insecurity. This study aims to understand whether social support in the transition to adulthood moderates the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and housing insecurity in adulthood.

Methods: This study used data from 10,034 individuals from Waves 1, 3 and 4 in-home surveys of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Housing insecurity in Wave 4 (ages 26 – 32) included difficulty paying rent/mortgage, difficulty paying utilities, or an eviction in the past 12 months. Independent variables measured retrospective self-reports of emotional abuse in childhood, which were included in a categorical variable indicating frequency of the abuse. Social supportin the transition to adulthood included level of closeness to a parent, financial assistance from a parent, and level closeness to a mentor in Wave 3 (ages 18 – 26). Controls included measures of race/ethnicity, gender, age, other forms of childhood adversity, parental and respondent adult socioeconomic status, and respondent psychological health and substance use in Wave 4.  Weighted binomial and multinomial logistic regressions were used in the analysis. The Holm Bonferroni approach corrected for multiple comparisons.  

Results: Among those who experienced moderate childhood emotional abuse, the likelihood of experiencing housing stress at ages 26 – 32 was conditional on financial support from parents at ages 18 – 26. Those who experienced moderate emotional abuse and received moderate financial support from parents had significantly lower odds of housing insecurity by ages 26 – 32 compared with those who experienced moderate emotional abuse but received no money from parents. After correcting for multiple comparisons, there were no significant relationships between level of closeness to a parent or a mentor at ages 18 – 26 and housing insecurity approximately six years later.

Conclusions and implications: There appears to be a “buffering” role of parental financial support for housing insecurity among those who experienced mild emotional abuse in childhood. However, financial support from parents in the transition to adulthood among those who were not emotionally abused was related to slightly higher odds of housing stress. While receipt of a small amount of financial support may not make much of a difference for those with no history of emotional abuse, receipt of even a small amount of money may protect against later housing insecurity for those who have a history of childhood emotional abuse. This finding is further evidence that cultivating any kind of supportive relationship with an adult could be a source of resilience for emotionally abused young people as they move through early adulthood.