Abstract
Parents are often advised to schedule changes of residence for the summer so that children do not change schools during the regular school year. But very little research has been done on seasonality of children's moves and whether families that move ‘off season’ differ from those that move in the summer. The child supplement to the 1988 National Health Interview Survey offers an opportunity to examine the degree of seasonality of children's mobility and to analyze characteristics that increase or decrease the probability of moving during the summer months. We find that many variables included in studies of differential mobility exhibit seasonal effects, but in a multivariate model age of child (beyond 7 or 8 years old), long-distance moves, a highly educated mother, and race that is not Black most strongly raise the odds of moving in the summer.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barrett, C.L. & Noble, H. (1973). Mother's anxieties versus the effects of long distance move on children,Journal of Marriage and the Family 35: 181–188.
Buckley, S. (1994). Schools struggle to help transient students,The Washington Post 22 May, pp. B1, B5.
Centofani, M. (1987). A moving experience: Changing homes can be a traumatic event, even when the reason is good,Washington Post Health 7 July, p. 8.
DeAre, D. (1993). The seasonality of moving: An analysis of data from the survey of income and program participation. SIPP Working Paper, No. 9305. Washington, DC: US Bureau of the Census.
Goodman, J.L. (1993). A housing market matching model of the seasonality in geographic mobility,The Journal of Real Estate Research 8: 117–137.
Hodges, K. (1988). Migration data from matched post office change of address records. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Household Goods Carriers' Bureau (1992).1991 Transportation Fact Book. Washington, DC.
Janik, C. (1988).Positive moves: The complete guide to moving you and your family across town or across the nation. New York: Weidenfield & Nicolson.
Long, L. (1988).Migration and residential mobility in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Long, L., Tucker, C.J. & Urton, W.L. (1988). Migration distances: An international comparison,Demography 25: 633–640.
Massey, J.T., Moore, T.F., Parsons, V.L. & Tadros, W. (1989).Design and estimation for the national health interview survey, 1985–94. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
McCollum, A. (1990).The trauma of moving. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
US Bureau of the Census (1992). Geographical mobility: March 1990 to March 1991. Current Population Reports, P20-463. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
US Bureau of the Census (1994). School enrollment: Social and economic characteristics of students: October 1993. Current Population Reports, P20-394. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
Van Vliet, W. (1986). Children who move: Relocation effects and their context,Journal of Planning Literature 1: 403–426.
Waldrop, J. (1992).The seasons of business. Ithaca, NY: American Demographics Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tucker, C.J., Long, L. & Marx, J. Seasonality of children's residential mobility: A research note. Popul Res Policy Rev 14, 205–213 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01074458
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01074458