The People you Know: The Impact of Residential Mobility on Mothers' Social Network Ties

The objective of this study was to examine whether residential mobility disrupts network ties. Data from a two-wave community study of the stress and support in families with young children in Syracuse, New York were analyzed, focusing on mobility distance, mobility frequency, kin presence in the network, and change in networks over time. Mobility distance was a predictor of network distance: respondents who had moved longer distances had networks that were more dispersed, and local movers had networks that were more proximate. In general, background characteristics explained more variance in networks than did mobility factors. Longitudinal analyses revealed that long-distance movers experienced an increase in network distance over the 3 years between waves and that the short-term effect of local moves on network proximity became non-significant. Mobility frequency had no significant effects on networks, net of controls, in either cross-sectional or longitudinal analyses. The longitudinal analyses suggest the importance of studying change in networks. The distance effects suggest that residential mobility cannot automatically be used as an indicator of social deficits.