"Very little is understood about the influence of housing on children's development in Australia. For example, a recent review of the literature on this issue suggests that: 'there is noticeably a lack of empirical research conducted in Australia on the links between housing and child development' (Dockery et al., 2010). In this report, we begin to fill the gap in the Australian evidence by providing the first national data on the influences of unstable housing on children's development, using data from 'Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children' (LSAC). Specifically, we examine the association between residential mobility, unstable housing tenure and housing stress on children's cognitive development and learning, and social-emotional functioning. Parental relationship breakdown often leads to unstable housing, and both of these are also key risk factors for homelessness, so we focus separately on the experiences of children living in separated and couple families."
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