Housing injustice and children's outcomes: how does growing up in rented accommodation affect children's health, wellbeing and cognitive development?

Housing issues have taken centre stage in public and academic discourse for over two decades, with an emphasis on the challenges of home-ownership affordability and the inadequacy of social housing. While existing research has concentrated on adults, this PhD project seeks to fill a critical knowledge gap by examining housing and wellbeing during childhood.

The focus of the project is on housing tenure trajectories. Previous studies have noted adverse effects on children's outcomes associated with growing up in rented accommodations, but the existence of a distinct "housing tenure effect" remains uncertain. The relationship may instead be influenced by selection effects or other factors linked to housing tenure, such as the quality of housing or neighbourhood.

Utilizing longitudinal data from three cohorts of children born in Scotland in the 2000s (Growing Up in Scotland Study), the project aims to enhance understanding of the connection between housing tenure trajectories and child wellbeing.

First, moving beyond prior static and one-dimensional operationalizations of child wellbeing in studies of housing, it considers physical health, socio-emotional wellbeing, and cognitive development; and explores the interrelationships among these domains and their changes over time.

Second, adopting an ecological perspective of human development, the project integrates individual records with contextual indicators and employs multilevel modelling techniques to investigate the influence of contextual factors (e.g., neighbourhood) on housing and child wellbeing.

Third, the project uses causal inference approaches to isolate the true causal effect of housing tenure trajectories from other family socio-demographic characteristics and life-course experiences associated with housing tenure.

Last, the research will provide fresh insights into the housing experiences of children in the 2000s. As Scotland shares similarities with the broader socio-economic and policy contexts of UK and other European countries, the study's findings could potentially inform policies supporting every child's right to secure and high-quality housing.