'Poor quality' housing harming mental health of mothers and children - ESRI 

Inadequate housing is “much more common in urban areas” while “most frequently experienced in Dublin compared to other regions (with a few exceptions),” it adds.

Families that live in poorer quality of housing have lower social and emotional wellbeing, according to new research by the ESRI.

The research, published on Thursday, also shows that the impact on mothers’ mental health of living in a home that is cold, damp and overcrowded leads to “much poorer” outcomes for their children,

The report, entitled Housing, Health and Happiness: How Inadequate Housing Shapes Child and Parental Wellbeing says that "income is a crucial driver of housing and neighbourhood quality".

It adds: “Mothers experiencing inadequate housing and poor-quality neighbourhoods tend to have higher levels of depression, worse self-rated health, and find parenting more stressful, as well as reporting greater conflict and less closeness with their children."

Among its other findings:

• Mothers who spend more time in privately rented homes (compared to an owned home) have more depressive symptoms, find parenting more stressful, and have a more hostile parenting style.
• Neighbourhood quality is strongly linked to mothers’ wellbeing. Mothers who spend longer living in more disorderly neighbourhoods and areas with less cohesion among neighbours have more depressive symptoms, a less warm and more hostile parenting style; they find parenting more stressful, and they report more conflict and less closeness with their child.
• Problems of housing quality, or having to frequently move home, are more common among those living in the private rented and social rented sectors (social housing)
• Children in homes that families struggle to keep warm or in more disorderly neighbourhoods appear to face socio-emotional difficulties because of their mother’s greater stress, depression and parenting style.

Inadequate housing is “much more common in urban areas” while “most frequently experienced in Dublin compared to other regions (with a few exceptions),” it adds.

Dr James Laurence, lead author of the report, said: “Poorer quality housing and neighbourhoods appear to put significant strain on parents’ social and emotional wellbeing, with worrying implications for the wellbeing of their children."

While much of the debate on housing in Ireland has focused on supply, this report shows how the quality of housing and the communities in which people live are also critical for families’ wellbeing. 

"Making housing quality a key part of all new builds and improving the conditions of the existing stock of housing, and our communities, will lead to long-term benefits for families.”