Content by Keyword: Early Childhood and Child Welfare

Toward a Typology of Homeless Families: Prospects for Secondary Analysis Authors: Debra Rog, C. Scott Holupka, Kelly Hastings, Lisa Patton, Marybeth Shinn

Toward a Typology of Homeless Families: Building on the Existing Knowledge Base Authors: Debra Rog, C. Scott Holupka, Kelly Hastings, Lisa Patton, Marybeth Shinn

The panelists emphasized the importance of identifying the goal of a typology before beginning to develop one. Different goals would demand different designs and more than one goal could translate into multiple typologies that need to be developed. It was agreed that more than one typology was needed to inform the policy world.

The discussion of research studies focused on the advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal and cross-sectional designs . Some participants argued that cross-sectional designs are not helpful because they confound those who remain homeless with those who are newly homeless. It was suggested that a longitudinal study that followed first-time ho

First, the panelists thought it was important to know how large a typology is needed-that is, how many variables should be considered? The caution was to keep it simple and focus on variables that provide the most differentiation. A good typology should have practical utility, be easy to derive from the data, and have the ability to predict futu

To guide the conceptualization of the typology, a one-day Expert Panel meeting was held in Washington, DC on July 25, 2005. Experts in homeless families research, homelessness research in general, welfare, and typology development were invited to participate along with several Federal representatives. The Expert Panelists discussed what constitute

The research studies conducted on homeless families have largely focused on the characteristics and needs of homeless mothers and their children (Bassuk and Rosenberg, 1988; Wood et al., 1990; Goodman, 1991a, 1991b; Shinn et al., 1998; Weitzman et al., 1992; Rog et al., 1995a, 1995b; Bassuk, 1996; Rossi, 1989). As already noted, these studies and

Whatever the purpose of a typology, its development entails a series of decisions and choices that require comprehensive knowledge of the population, the research that produced the knowledge, and the tradeoffs with the available approaches to typology development. There are several gaps in the knowledge of the overall homeless family population th

Although there has been some limited attention to typologies for homeless families (e.g., Danesco and Holden, 1998) the literature that is most helpful involves efforts to develop typologies and classification systems for a range of populations, including individuals who abuse substances (e.g., Epstein et al., 2002; German and Sterk, 2002), indivi

The literature review provides a broad understanding of what is known about homeless families from the research conducted to date and offers a foundation for developing a typology of homeless families. There are also, as noted next, a number of unanswered questions about the population that may be important to address in moving forward. However, t

Research indicates that homeless children have high rates of both acute and chronic health problems. They are more likely than their poor housed counterparts to be hospitalized, to have delayed immunizations, and to have elevated blood lead levels (Alperstein, Rappaport, and Flanigan, 1988; Parker et al., 1991; Rafferty and Shinn, 1991; Weinreb et

Homeless mothers and their families face a number of challenges and problems, some that may stem from being homeless and others that may have contributed to becoming homeless. Homeless mothers, for instance, have more acute and chronic health problems than the general population of females under 45 years of age.

Family homelessness is perhaps most aptly described as a pattern of residential instability. Homeless episodes are typically part of a longer period of residential instability marked by frequent moves, short stays in one’s own housing, and doubling-up with relatives and friends.

Social support is an important buffer for stress and a major predictor of emotional and physical well-being (Cohen and Wills, 1985). Social networks can be an important housing resource for poor families, who frequently double-up with others when they cannot afford independent housing. Findings about social networks of homeless families, however,

Adults in both homeless and other poor families generally have low levels of educational attainment and minimal work histories. Compared to the national average of 75 percent of all mothers having a high school diploma or graduate equivalency diploma (GED), for example, high school graduation or GED rates for mothers in homeless families range fro

One of the unfortunate experiences for a significant portion of homeless families is the separation of a child from the family, either temporarily or permanently (Cowal, Shinn, Weitzman, Stojanovic, and Labay, 2002; Hoffman and Rosenheck, 2001). The NSHAPC reported that 60 percent of all homeless women in 1996 had children below 18 years, but only

The typical profile of a homeless family is one headed by a single woman in her late 20s with approximately two children, one or both under 6 years of age (Bassuk et al., 1996; Burt et al., 1999; LaVesser, Smith, and Bradford, 1997; Lowin, Demirel, Estee, and Schreinder 2001; Rog, McCombs-Thornton, Gilbert-Mongelli, Brito, and Holupka, 1995b; SAMH

This chapter, describing the contributions of existing research, provides the first in a series of building blocks toward developing a typology of homeless families. Although the number of studies conducted on homeless families is small, the considerable overlap in the findings suggests that there may be a sufficient knowledge base upon which to b