The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between frequent
childhood mobility and perceived social support, education level, and economic well-being
in a sample of former Even Start parents. Theoretically the mechanisms for the
disruption of frequent mobility are studied through both social capital theory and an
ecological model. As individuals are uprooted and moved from one environment to the
next they are faced with the developmental challenge of continuous adaptation. With
each move losses of social capital at the individual, family, and community level are
experienced.
The most striking factor about the results of the qualitative analysis is the
parallel it finds to previous quantitative studies on the outcomes and risk factors of
frequent mobility. The participants who experienced frequent mobility in childhood
described lives that were chaotic and uncertain. Frequent childhood mobility was
directly mentioned by several of the participants as a factor increasing hardship in
their lives, associated with participants' retrospective accounts of their poverty status in
childhood and their economic status at the time of the interviews. A lack of significant
parental social support in the group experiencing high childhood mobility, and its
presence in the low childhood mobility group suggests the disruption frequent
childhood mobility may cause in the ability of this group to obtain needed parental
social support. In a population where risk factors are already present frequent
childhood mobility seems to be a key factor in further reducing life chances. / Graduation date: 2004
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/30504 |
| Date | 25 June 2003 |
| Creators | Hilberg, Beth Alyne |
| Contributors | Richards, Leslie N. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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