Housing wealth matters for children’s mental health

Children growing up in families with expensive homes have fewer emotional and behavioural problems, finds new research led by the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) based at the UCL Social Research Institute. The study, published today in Child Development, is one of the first to look at the links between family wealth and children's development. The authors say that it is well established that children from higher income homes have, on average, fewer emotional and behavioural problems than children from families with lower incomes. But this new research shows that wealth - the assets a family owns - also plays a role in children's mental health. Comparing families with similar incomes, the researchers found that children from families with greater wealth, particularly related to home ownership, tend to have fewer emotional and behavioural problems than children from homes with less wealth. The researchers analysed data from more than 8,500 children born in the UK at the turn of the century who are taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). They looked at information on parents' wealth, including home ownership and value, and other financial assets such as savings, stocks and shares.