Household Chaos May Be Hazardous to a Child’s Health

Credit:  Elizabeth/Table4Five on Flickr 

A home life filled with noise, disorder and lack of a routine can result in poor health for young children, according to a new study.  Over 3,000 mothers were interviewed by researchers on two occasions - once when their children were 3 years old and again when their children were 5 years old.  

The results show the importance of order and routine in helping preschoolers stay healthy and develop to the best of their potential, said Claire Kamp Dush, PhD, the lead author of the study. “Children need to have order in their lives,” Kamp Dush said. “When their life is chaotic and not predictable, it can lead to poorer health.”

Kamp Dush said that the study involved mostly low-income families, and the results showed mothers who were more impoverished reported significantly higher levels of chaos.

“I don’t think that the findings would be different in a middle-class sample – chaos is bad for children from any background,” she said.

“But most middle-class families can avoid the same level of chaos that we saw in the most impoverished families.  We’re not talking about the chaos of your kids being over involved in activities and the parents having to run them from one place to another.  This harmful chaos is much more fundamental.”

linked to poorer health at age 5,” Kamp Dush said.

The most common source of household chaos was television noise, with more than 60 percent of mothers reporting the television was on more than five hours a day.  Between 15 and 20 percent of households reported crowding, noise, and unclean and cluttered rooms.

Kamp Dush noted that chaos has been linked to stress, and stress has been shown to lead to poorer health.  Women with inflexible work schedules may not be able to take their children to the doctor when needed.  And a dirty house may increase exposure to toxins and germs.

Kamp Dush emphasized that the findings shouldn’t be used to suggest that the parents are at fault for the chaos in their households.

“We’re not blaming the victims here – there is a larger system involved,” she said.

The study appears online in the journal Social Science & Medicine.

©Mary M Conneely T/A Advocacy in Action