Researchers say that there is a link between how much you spend on housing and cognitive development of children.
Johns Hopkins University researchers examined the possible connection between affordable housing and cognitive development, physical health and wellbeing of children living in low-income families.
The study analysis showed that the cognitive ability and school grades of children improved. However, no effect was seen on children's physical and social health.
The researchers said that that children's reading and math scores tended to suffer when a family spent more than half of their income on housing. Researchers also found that children of families who spent less than 20 percent of their income on housing also had significantly lower test scores.
"Families spending about 30 percent of their income on housing had children with the best cognitive outcomes," Sandra J. Newman, a Johns Hopkins professor of policy studies and director of the university's Center on Housing, Neighborhoods and Communities, said in a press release. "It's worse when you pay too little and worse when you pay too much."
According to the research team, the study analysis showed that families that spent more money on housing spent less on educational tools like books, computers, and field trips to boost child development. Moreover, the families that did not spend enough on housing were more likely to live in distressed neighborhoods and inadequate environments, which could lead to poorer academic performance.
"The markedly poorer performance of children in families with extremely low housing cost burdens undercuts the housing policy assumption that a lower housing cost burden is always best," Newman said. "Rather than finding a bargain in a good neighborhood, they're living in low-quality housing with spillover effects on their children's development."
"People are making trade-offs, and those trade-offs have implications for their children," concluded co-researcher C. Scott Holupka.
The findings were published in the Journal of Housing Economics and in the journal Housing Policy Debate.
