Importance: Eviction is a pressing public health concern that disproportionately impacts disadvantaged families. Understanding how caregivers' stress about eviction relates to specific childhood psychiatric issues across development is important. Objective: To examine associations between eviction stress and caregiver-reported child depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and behavioral problems, adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative survey. Setting: United States. Participants: Over 36,000 caregivers and children from a national survey. Main Outcomes and Measures: Caregiver-reported child depression, anxiety, ADHD, and behavioral problems. Generalized linear mixed models were used to test associations with eviction stress. Results: Eviction stress was associated with 12-35% increased odds of depression and anxiety. Relationships were moderated by age, with stronger associations for younger children. No significant relationships emerged between eviction stress and ADHD or behavioral problems after adjustment. Conclusions and Relevance: This study provides new insights into how eviction-related stress differentially impacts internalizing versus externalizing psychopathology across child development. Prospective longitudinal research is still needed to fully understand these complex relationships over time. Findings underscore the importance of policies and interventions to address housing instability and its mental health consequences for children.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This work was supported by internal funding to Dr. Hanson.

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This study utilized existing de-identified data from the publicly available 2022 National Survey of Children's Health. An ethics review and approval was not required as only de-identified secondary data were analyzed.

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