The impact of hoarding on minor children can be long lasting. Yet surprisingly, we don’t find much about it on popular media. We decided to investigate this topic as our theme for this week, and were fortunate to find some solid research.
The work in question, by researchers Oskar Kokol and Associates forms the basis for this article. Although we can’t possibly do more that provide a summary of their detailed work. Please click on the link if you would like to know more.
Impact Lingers After Children Grow Up
The researchers begin by observing how children growing up in hoarded homes, may face ongoing challenges in later life. Yet there is scant information about their need for support, even in research data, which is why they undertook the study. Their broad methodology was as follows;
- Oskar Kokol and Associates obtained their data from a large group of adult children of hoarding parents.
- Their open-ended criteria revealed a rich store of ‘vent’ and ‘question’ topics, in Reddit social media groups.
- Their second stream of data found the now-adult children faced ‘above norm difficulties’, caring for elderly parents.
Hoarding Impact on Children By Theme
The researchers analyzed their progress to date, and determined that the impact of hoarding on minor children in later life could be grouped under the following topics:
- 1) Unresolved past, 2) present ramifications, 3) hygiene and hazards,
- 4) Own hoarding tendencies, 5) relationship conflict, 6) small victories,
- 7) Crisis-related support, 8) emotional triggers, 9) psycho-education about hoarding,
- 10) Young adults escaping the cycle, 11) managing gifts and belongings.
The researchers remark how adult children of hoarders face ‘significant psychological and practical challenges’. And they call for further work to determine suitable interventions to help resolve these.
Impact of Hoarding Disorder on Families
Oskar Kokol and Associates describe hoarding disorder as a complex neuro-psychiatric disorder, affecting both their brain and mental health. This condition is characterized by excessive need to acquire objects, and difficulty discarding them.
The accumulation of clutter that accumulates in hoarder’s homes, can have a profound impact on the quality life of all residents living there:
- Personal safety, deterioration of the building, and sanitation issues can affect everyone.
- The hoarder can become increasingly isolated from those around them. Neighbourhood disputes may erupt.
- Children of hoarding parents, in particular, may experience high levels of distress, and impairment of their lives.
- In extreme cases, social welfare may have to remove the children from their home, with all the disruption this brings about.
Main Findings On The Impact of Parent Hoarding
The researchers categorized the posts on Reddit, to determine the pain points that hoarders’ adult children were experiencing. This yielded a number of distinct clusters of experiences:
- Frustration with past experiences, grappling with hoarding, and attributing blame.
- Coping with the negative legacy of being a hoarder’s child, dealing with the present moment.
- Facing up to the impact of hoarding on minor children, with reference to lack of hygiene.
- Confronting own hoarding tenancies, resisting them, and consciously not cluttering.
- Interpersonal conflicts with hoarding parents, and finding ways to deal with them.
- Achieving small victories, celebrating achievements, and increased empathy towards parents.
- Seeking support while grappling with crisis moments, turning points, and failures.
- Dealing with emotional triggers such as anxiety, sadness and anger, post-traumatic stress.
- Getting to grips with the physical, mental, and psycho-social triggers behind their situation.
- Feeling trapped and distressed about clutter, escaping the parental home, and beginning anew.
- Managing own belongings and gifts, un-cluttering regularly to avoid falling into the trap.
Wrapping Up And Closing Out
Oskar Kokol and Associates set out to explore the unique psycho-social challenges and support needs, of adult children of hoarders. They gathered their data from posts this group published on the Reddit social media platform.
They concluded that adult children of hoarders, face greater challenges than simply caring for aged parents. And as a result, their subject group experiences greater distress, and requires more emotional support.
Clearing an Aged Parent’s Hoarded Home
We can well imagine that these psycho-social challenges come to a head, when a child of a hoarder has to clear their parental home. Avery Associates regularly assists clients with this unenviable task, often after a death, or a move to a frail care facility.
We have our own dedicated team of young para-professionals, well able to do the heavy lifting without noise and and fuss. They will have a professional assessor watching from the sidelines, and making sure that valuable items, and personal documents do not go into the skip with the rest of the clutter.
More Information
Clearing Hoarded Houses With Respect
Responsibility for Property in a Deceased Estate
If anyone has a hoarding addiction/problem, Jeff and his team can be highly recommended at an instant by myself to help others sort out their issues. I would not hesitate to work with Jeff and his company if ever the need rises again, and have full trust and faith in what they do in making the client happy, relaxed and assured that they have your interests at heart. (Richard Clarke)
