The findings of a Danish study reveal that children, whose families pick up and move often show higher odds for a suicide bid.

In fact, the more often a family moved, the more likely a child would attempt or be successful in his attempt of suicide, showing despite an increasingly mobile society, very little research has been done for addressing the influence of mobility on children's psycho-social well-being.

The study on children born in Denmark between 1978 and 1995, checked hospital records that showed 4,160 of the 120,000 attempted suicide between 11 and 17-years of age, with 79 of these attempts ending in a completed suicide. Interestingly, it was found that the rates of suicidal behaviour increased with the number of times the childrens' families had changed addresses.

Each child involved in a suicide attempt was then compared by researchers with 30-other children of the same sex and age. The comparison showed that the number of childhood suicide attempts rose with the number of changes of residence. According to the study, those who moved more than three times had more than twice the risk for suicide and those who moved over 10-times had a four-fold risk.

However, a change in residence is just one of many factors that can upset a child for him / her to consider suicide, as other studies have shown psychiatric problems, affecting either children or parents, including a family history of suicide are also important risk factors.

The study reported in the June issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry says: 'the breakdown of connections with peers, discontinuation of group activities, distress and worries related to the new environment' prove psychologically distressing, as children feel ignored and no one to communicate with.

The reasons why families move frequently e. g. pathology of a parent, unemployment or divorce, all related to suicidal behaviour, are useful in explaining the link with paediatric suicide attempts. Moving means a loss of social network, a change of schools and friends, changes that disrupt their lives and likely to hit adolescents hardest, because of how much their friends tie into their identities, as adolescence is so much about peer relationships, including a parent's distress. It is for the parents, teachers and other caretakers to take steps to ease the stress of moving, keeping alert for warning signs of unhappiness like withdrawal, anger, recklessness, mood changes, purposelessness, anxiety and drug abuse.

So, the best thing to do when a family moves, is to seek help if there are signs of distress, and communicate as communication is always very important. Talk to the children, find out what their feelings about their new environment, including whether they have any difficulties with it.