THE EFFECT OF HOUSING QUALITY ON MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTH: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF FAMILY CONFLICT

Abstract

Home is a place where people spend more than half of the day and communicate regularly with important members of their social network. Thus, it is natural to examine whether housing quality has effects on human health. Many studies have reported a positive relation between housing quality and mental health, but most suffer from cross-sectional research designs and lack analysis of underlying mechanisms to account for the possible effects of housing quality. In this regard, the present study seeks to shed light on the association among housing problems, maternal mental health, and family conflict within the context of a longitudinal design. This study also examines whether family conflict operates as an underlying mechanism of the relation between housing problems and mental health. The results show that housing problems are prospectively associated with greater psychological distress among women independently of socioeconomic status. Furthermore, this effect is partially explained by higher levels of familial conflict.