Cumulative Housing Instability, Depression, and Positive Adolescent Functioning: Moderating Effects of Neighborhood Collective Efficacy

Introduction and Purpose:
Existing evidence suggests that housing instability is associated with negative adolescent behavior and health outcomes. However, much less is known about how positive adolescent functioning, which includes engagement, perseverance, optimism, social connection, and happiness, may be related to housing instability. Moreover, prior work focuses on point-in-time experiences of housing instability although we know housing instability is dynamic and may have cumulative consequences. Further, neither housing instability nor adolescent functioning occur in a vacuum. Housing problems can lead to emotional isolation, increasing depression, which can act as a major pathway to weakened positive functioning. Meanwhile, when trust and support exist in communities, such negative effects can be mitigated, and collective efficacy can act as a community resource that embodies protective mechanisms. The present study aims to comprehensively analyze how cumulative housing instability affects positive adolescent functioning through youth depression and how these relationships may change depending on community context.

Methods:
We used data from Waves 1 to 6 of the Future of Families and Child Well-Being Study (FFCWS), with an analytic sample of 1,893 adolescents from households with income below 200% of the federal poverty line. We constructed an index measure of cumulative housing instability, capturing experiences of involuntary moving, forced eviction, temporary housing, or excessive housing costs at points when focal children were 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15 years old. Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed the direct and indirect effects of cumulative housing instability on adolescents' positive functioning, measured as a combined scale capturing engagement, perseverance, optimism, connectedness, and happiness, and including adolescent depression symptoms as a mediator. Additionally, we examined the moderating effect of neighborhood collective efficacy through multi-group analysis. Models adjusted for adolescent and household sociodemographic covariates.

Results:
Results indicate that cumulative housing instability is significantly associated with increased adolescent depression (p<.05), and depression predicts decreased positive functioning (p<.001). Indirect effect testing shows that the pathway from housing instability to positive functioning through depression is statistically significant (p<.05), and the total effect of housing instability on positive functioning is also significant (p<.01). Multi-group analysis indicates that housing instability is significantly associated with depression only in a low collective efficacy group (p<.01), while the association is mitigated in a high-efficacy group. However, the association between depression and positive functioning remains strong and statistically significant in both groups (p<.001).

Conclusions and Implications:
Results of this study expand our understanding of housing instability by conceptualizing it not as a one-time experience but as an ongoing condition with cumulative implications for adolescent mental health and positive functioning. Our study’s empirical contributions demonstrate that depression mediates the association between cumulative housing instability and adolescent positive functioning, while neighborhood collective efficacy serves as a protective factor that moderates this relationship. Findings inform housing policy and practice strategies and highlight the need for integrated interventions that combine residential stability, mental health support, and stronger neighborhood social ties to reduce the psychological risks and developmental challenges of cumulative housing instability during adolescence.