Managing Frequent Relocations in Families? Considering Prospect Theory, Emotional Framing, and Priming

We review the evidence and impact of relocation on outcomes in child development in civilian and military families, both those who relocate regularly and those who do not. Research with broad samples of families and conventional wisdom suggests that frequent relocation leads to negative outcomes in children. However, this observation is not consistently observed for military families or for some civilian families who regularly relocate. The reasons for these differences are not clear, but maternal attitude and parent–child interactions have been suggested as a possible moderator of relocation resilience. Nevertheless, the exact mechanisms or approach for promoting relocation resilience is not clear in the evidence base. Through an analysis of the limited available data, we propose that effectively promoting relocation resilience may involve three primary approaches and related psychological processes: (i) managing the perception of risk (based on prospect theory), (ii) emotional framing, and (iii) priming. These processes are reviewed and presented for further consideration in future research on promoting relocation resilience.