Frequent moves affect children the most! Experts said that it is a major stress event along with serious illness, unemployment and divorce

Source: Life Times

Interviewed experts: Zhang Kan, academician of the Academy of Sciences of Developing Countries and researcher of the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Life Times reporter Gao Yang

Recently, the topic of "Chinese moves more than 10 times in their lifetime" has been on the hot search. In the traditional impression, Chinese people tend to live a stable life, but with social progress, economic development, transportation improvement, and the influence of factors such as career planning, the mobility of Chinese is increasing, and the number of moves has gradually increased.

It is closely related to social progress

The results of the seventh national census released not long ago show that the urbanization rate of China's permanent population has reached 63.89%, and the floating population will reach 370 million in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 6.97%. The increase in the floating population means that moving has become a footnote in people's lives today.

"After the reform and opening up, especially in recent years, people have indeed moved more than before." Zhang Kan, an academician of the Academy of Sciences of Developing Countries and a researcher at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that decades ago, many people lived in the same place all their lives, and now there are almost no such people. Some people move to improve the living environment, such as office workers renting nearby for the convenience of work, young people buying houses because of family life needs such as starting a family and welcoming a new life, and changing to a large house after work promotion or economic conditions become better; some people move is helpless, such as being forced to move due to the increase in the price of landlords, the elderly leaving their hometown to take care of their grandchildren, and living in the city of their children.

"Moving is closely related to social progress." Zhang Kan explained that from the macro perspective of social development, the survival and development of people is divided into three levels: First, to solve the problem of eating and living; when the needs for food and housing are satisfied, with the rapid development of transportation and communication, enter the second stage, that is, the desire to flow; when industrial production and material resources can meet social development, when there is a more detailed social division of labor, it will enter the third stage, at this time geographical distance is no longer a problem, people will flow in order to meet various needs. Our country is very large, regional development is still unbalanced, people will migrate to improve living conditions, for example, young people in small cities to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places to work hard, that is, from areas with few job opportunities to places with more opportunities. People "go north" and "go south", further breaking the pattern between cities and basically realizing the natural migration of population.

It has the greatest impact on the old and the young

Behind the tide of population mobility is every living person who is experiencing a move. Although the reasons for moving are varied, they all have to face new residences and interpersonal environments. Zhang Kan said that no matter what kind of mood, leaving a familiar place always requires great courage, and the longer you live, the more you are bound. Watching the home where I have lived for so many years suddenly empty, my heart seems to be missing a piece, and those things that have been used, even a comb and a pen, are not willing to throw away; those former partners, neighbors, and old classmates may have broken off contact since then; those familiar streets and delicacies may also say goodbye for a while because of moving. Therefore, before deciding to move, everyone needs to solve several relationships, namely with themselves, with others, with objects, and with the environment.

"Some people relocate with peace, and some people settle down with the encounter." Zhang Kan said that moving has two sides, in general, most of them are good things, the embodiment of the freedom given to people by the times, and the expansion of individual adaptability to the outside world. But it is undeniable that moving has a particularly large psychological impact. Psychologically, moving is juxtaposed with major illnesses, unemployment, and divorce as a major stressful event. Whether people who move frequently will be psychologically insecure and belong has always been a topic of great concern.

Moving is a common and often overlooked scene in childhood experiences. Because of their parents' job transfers, or for a better living environment and school, many people have experienced moving when they are young. Foreign surveys show that from the birth of a child to the age of 9, about 60% of families have experienced at least one move; 80% of people have experienced at least one move before the age of 18. Zhang Kan pointed out that there are too many moves, and the social network is destroyed and rebuilt, which has a particularly large impact on the child's psychology. Children tend to be more sensitive to environmental changes than adults, and children who move frequently have more behavioral and academic problems. An Australian study showed that children who moved twice or more before the age of 2 were more likely to develop anxiety, depression and other behaviors related to loneliness at the age of 9. In addition, moving is sometimes the result of changes in family relationships, such as changes in economic conditions, parental separation or divorce, which can have a great impact on children in themselves.

In addition, the elderly generally have the plot of the homeland, the ability to adapt to the new environment is poor, and it is not suitable for frequent and long-distance moving. For many young people who work hard in different places, although moving is normal, every time they move, they will experience an exhaustion. Even after years of working in a city, this turmoil can be a bit unstable or lacking in belonging.

Zhang Kan believes that the psychological impact of moving on group culture is subtle. Generation after generation has moved away from the original living environment, and even left their hometown, making the word "hometown" a thing of the past, making many people feel that they are "rootless duckweed". How to retain the feeling of hometown is a problem worth exploring in depth. In psychology, the sense of belonging and identity is a necessity for a person's survival and development, and if it is missing, it will become a rootless tree, and the mentality will become impetuous.

Make a home for the soul

With the improvement of people's living standards, some livable cities or cities with emerging industries are increasingly favored, and the population flow between cities has promoted the process of multi-regional urbanization and stimulated the potential of local economic development, and moving, a modern microcosm of human migration activities, will become more common. Zhang Kan believes that it is necessary to pay attention to the following key groups and improve the supporting social welfare system.

Society should reduce left-behind children as much as possible, and parents should take into account the parenting and companionship of their children and try to live with their children. Urban development should provide opportunities for migrants to work and the education of their children, especially to improve the relevant school attendance assistance measures. Even if you are separated from your children because of moving, you must use video and telephone contact. Young people or young parents should also be mentally prepared to actively integrate into new urban and social relationships, consider how to reduce variables in the process of moving, and make long-term plans.

The elderly are more adapted to the original environment, especially the elderly, should minimize the move, children should respect and maintain the inherent interpersonal network of the elderly. Even if you move, you must ensure that there are supermarkets, banks, hospitals, etc. around the elderly's residence. The elderly should respect their inner thoughts, and do not reluctantly stay away from their hometown in order to take care of their grandchildren, otherwise it will be detrimental to physical and mental health.

People who are far away from home cannot forget their hometown, and they can take time to go back to see the places where they once lived and gather with familiar relatives and friends. People who frequently move in the same city due to renting and other reasons, mostly young and middle-aged, should take time to party with old friends and old neighbors, send new neighbors some small gifts when moving, and pay more attention to the activities of the new community, make new friends, and actively integrate into the new environment. It should be noted that the world is accelerating its development, and human beings' self-regulation ability is also very strong, do not be too attached to words such as "no fixed place" and "drifting duckweed", and believe that the general direction of social and personal development must be forward. Whether you move or not, "this peace of mind is my hometown."

This article is from Life Times and represents only the author's views. The National Party Media Information Public Platform provides information release and dissemination services.

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