Residential mobility was defined as the frequency of relocation. On an individual level, it refers to the frequency that people change their residence. On a societal level, it refers to the percentage of residents who have moved in a given period in a given area. Residential mobility leads to the changes of social environment. Social environment here mainly implies the dynamic social relationship and social network built through social interaction, including family, relatives, peers, school and neighborhood. From the perspective of changes in social environment, we reviewed the effects of residential mobility on people’s feeling, thinking and behaviors. First, we reviewed research methods and results of previous studies regarding children/adolescents. The international researches mainly conducted longitudinal studies. They measured the number of moves in last one year, five years or in a specific period of time. The researches in China often used surveys to compare the differences of psychological states between children/adolescents in high residential mobility group and those in low residential mobility group. Results of these studies showed that moves interrupted the consistency of critical social environments (e.g. school and neighborhood) needed for the growth of children/adolescents, led caregivers to reduce parent-child interaction and educational expenditure, decreased quantity and quality of relationships between children/adolescents and their neighbors or peers. These changes of social environments generated by residential mobility have negative influence on children’s/adolescents’ self-regulation, cognition, emotions, problem behaviors, social relationship and group behaviors. Second, we reviewed the methods and findings of previous studies regarding adults. International studies investigated psychological effects of residential mobility both by surveys and by experiments. One type of surveys is to use questionnaires to measure psychological variables of participants and ask them to report moving history from 5-year-old to their age of college. Another type of surveys is to use of census data to acquire the information of residential mobility and psychological variables. The experiments conducted to test psychological effects of residential mobility often manipulated residential mobility by priming or role playing. Researches in China conducted surveys to compare the mental health of high residential mobility group (i.e., floating population) with that of lower residential mobility group or with the means of China. Residential mobility breaks familiar interpersonal relationships, brings people into unfamiliar social relationships and decrease social supports. These changes of social environment evoke negative emotions (e.g. anxiety, loneliness, sadness), decrease the level of well-being and mental health, but motivate people to expand their social networks. High residential mobility also makes people to switch belonging groups and social identities frequently. As a result, residential mobility lowers the level of collective self, increases the level of individual self, leads to conditional group identification, and decreases pro-social behaviors. Finally, on the basis of the above review, we discussed the following three questions: 1.What are the associations among the psychological effects of residential mobility in childhood, adolescence and adulthood? 2. Whether and how residential mobility influences pro-self behaviors? 3. What are the future research directions of psychological effects of residential mobility in China?