[skippy]

I'm trying to find info about the effects on children from changing schools. A single mom I know has in the past 5 years had her two sons in 4 different houses and 2 different schools. They just started in a new school 4 months ago and she's moving again over Christmas break. This will be their third school. One boy is 9, the other is 13. Each move has put them farther away from their father (my fiance'). Can anyone help?

[Rapunzel]

I don't know about any articles on this subject, but it's an interesting topic. I was an Air Force brat, so I went to 6 different schools by the time I was in 8th grade. Some have it a lot worse than I did. There are so many other factors involved in how much impact anything has on a child, but I always associated the beginning of my depression with moving away from my best friend when I was 9 years old, followed by deciding not to have friends anymore because leaving them behind was too painful. Stability of some kind is desirable for kids or anyone, and a school, teacher, neighborhood, or friends can be a source of stability. Family is usually a very important source of stability, and if family stability is lacking, then there is more need for stability from some other source. Then again, people are not equally resilient, so the same degree of challenge might be managable for some but very harmful to others. One of the things that makes the most difference to kids if they can't count on their parents, or even if they just need some extra support, is to have a good, open relationship with a caring adult who they can trust and depend on.

<font color=green>"Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible" Carl Jung</font color=green>