From safety to vulnerability - How eviction affects children and their future : A Systematic Literature Review

Eviction, homelessness and unsafe housing among children is a rising problem in society. According to Swedish statistics the number of evicted children is increasing at an alarming rate. The aim of this paper is to examine how these children’s lives are affected by evictions and their living situations afterwards, both short and long term. The researched themes are schooling, mental health, delinquency and development, after being evicted as a child. The method of this paper is a systematic literature review, consisting of 21 peer reviewed academic journals with a Swedish perspective. Bronfenbrenner’s theory of Developmental Ecology as well as Goffman’s Stigmatization Theory are primarily used to analyze the empirical evidence of this study. The main discoveries were that being evicted as a child had negative consequences on all of the mentioned factors, and that an unstable living situation during childhood can negatively affect these individuals throughout life. The legal framework for children’s rights in Sweden is the Convention on the Rights of the Child which is also discussed in relation to the results of this essay. The conclusion of this study is that children living under these conditions are disadvantaged both academically, mentally, socially, and structurally. The negative consequences of these experiences can affect these individuals during both childhood and adulthood, as well as be deemed as a problem on a societal level. Therefore, more research is needed to protect these children from housing vulnerability and its consequences.