Stability in children’s environments, relationships, and basic needs is critical for their healthy development and well-being. Instability—defined as the experience of abrupt and/or involuntary change in individual, family, or community circumstances—can create significant barriers to meeting these foundational needs, particularly if the disruption is negative, frequent, or not buffered by an adult. Below are selected materials that explore instability overall and children’s healthy development. 

• Stabilizing Children’s Lives: Insights for Research and Action
• The Negative Effects of Instability on Child Development: A Research Synthesis
• Exploring Instability and Children's Well-Being: Insights from a Dialogue among Practitioners, Policymakers and Researchers
• Insights on Instability and Children's Development: Commentaries from Practitioners, Policymakers, and Researchers
• Turbulence and Child Well-Being

• Stabilizing families requires thinking outside the box (Urban Wire Post)

• The shutdown has federal families experiencing instability already felt by many (Urban Wire Post)
• Children: the unseen casualties of the hatred unleashed by the election (Urban Wire Post)
• Helping families deal with economic instability requires flexible public policies (Urban Wire Post)
• Protecting children from instability will require a new, whole-family approach (Urban Wire Post)
• How do we help children thrive amid instability? (Urban Wire Post)
• Reflections on instability in children's lives: Why it matters and what we can do (Urban Wire Post)
• Desperate trade-offs among the working poor (Urban Wire Post)
• Stabilizing children’s lives: Insights for research and action (Urban Wire Post)