The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of food insecurity and factors related to it among homeless and runaway adolescents.
Computer-assisted personal interviews were conducted ...with homeless and runaway adolescents directly on the streets and in shelters.
Interviews were conducted in eight Midwest cities: Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Kansas City, Lincoln, Omaha, St. Louis and Wichita.
The subjects were 428 (187 males; 241 females) homeless and runaway adolescents aged 16-19 years. Average age of the adolescents was 17.4 (standard deviation 1.05) years.
About one-third of the adolescents had experienced food insecurity in the past 30 days. Factors associated with food insecurity were age of adolescent, a history of caretaker neglect and abuse, having ever spent time directly on the street, a small post-runaway social network, and engaging in deviant and non-deviant street food-acquisition strategies.
Based on these findings, our conservative estimate is that nationally more than 165,000 homeless and runaway adolescents experienced food insecurity in the past 30 days. These adolescents are largely hidden from public notice and they are usually missed in studies that address national hunger.
This paper presents lifetime and 12-month prevalence rates and comorbidity data for substance abuse disorders among homeless and runaway adolescents. Data are from baseline interviews of a ...longitudinal diagnostic study of 428 (187 males and 241 females) homeless and runaway adolescents aged 16 to 19 years (mean age = 17.4 year, SD = 1.05). The data were collected by full-time interviewers on the streets and in shelters in eight Midwestern cities of various populations. About two thirds (60.5%) of the runaways met lifetime criteria for at least one of three substance disorders (alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, drug abuse), and nearly one half (48.1%) met 12-month criteria for at least one of the disorders. Nearly all of the adolescents (93%) who met criteria for a substance disorder met criteria for at least one other mental disorder. Those factors most predictive of meeting lifetime criteria include parenting practices, experience of abuse, and association with deviant peers.
Investigated the impact of childhood sexual abuse on later sexual victimization among homeless and runaway youth. Found high rates of childhood sexual abuse and street sexual victimization, with ...females experiencing higher rates than males. Early sexual abuse increased likelihood of later victimization indirectly by increasing amount of time at risk, deviant peer affiliations, deviant subsistence strategies, and survival sex. (Author/KB)
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Research on homeless and runaway adolescents has shown that this population is at high risk for illicit drug use. Though sexual abuse has been widely considered in the etiology of illicit drug use, ...we know less about how early sexual abuse affects young people's decisions to run away, to use drugs, and to engage in other deviant behavior on the streets. Based on interviews with 361 female homeless and runaway adolescents in four midwestern states, the current study revealed a high prevalence of drug use, especially use of cocaine among youths with sexual abuse histories. Path analyses showed that early sexual abuse indirectly affected drug use on the streets via running away at an earlier age, spending more time on the street, and use of deviant strategies to survive (e.g., affiliation with deviant peers, trading sex, and use of nonsexual deviant subsistence strategies).
This study used a high-risk population of runaway and homeless adolescents to investigate the effects of a history of caretaker abuse and deviant subsistence strategies on victimization among ...adolescents. Based on a multisite sample of 974 homeless and runaway adolescents, logistic regression models were used first to examine factors predicting involvement in sexual and nonsexual deviant subsistence strategies and then to investigate the effects of deviant subsistence strategies on physical and sexual victimization when adolescents were on the streets. Results indicated that when controlling for all other factors, including histories of physical and sexual maltreatment in families of origin, street behaviors, sexual orientation, and informal support systems, engaging in nonsexual deviant subsistence strategies increased the likelihood of physical victimization more than two times. Engaging in sexual deviant subsistence strategies increased the likelihood of sexual victimization almost four times. The results are interpreted in terms of life course developmental theory and lifestyle exposure theories.
This article examines a biosocial model of the impact of puberty on indigenous girls’ early-onset substance use by considering the potential mediating role of peer context (i.e., mixed-sex peer ...groups and substance use prototypes) on the puberty and substance use relationship. Data include responses from 360 girls of a common indigenous cultural group residing on reservations/ reserves in the upper Midwest and Canada. Results of structural equation modeling revealed that the statistically significant relationship between girls’ pubertal development and early-onset substance use was mediated by both mixed-sex/romantic peer groups and favorable social definitions of substance use. Implications for substance use prevention work include addressing the multiple and overlapping effects of peer influence from culturally relevant perspectives.
This article presents lifetime and 12-month prevalence rates and comorbidity for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among a sample of 428 homeless and runaway adolescents. Data are from baseline ...interviews of a longitudinal diagnostic study of 428 (187 males; 241 females) homeless and runaway adolescents aged 16-19 years (mean age = 17.4 years, SD = 1.05). The data were collected by full-time street interviewers on the streets and in shelters in eight Midwestern cities of various populations. About one-third (35.5%) of the runaways met lifetime criteria for PTSD and 16.1% met 12-month criteria for the disorder. More than 90% of the adolescents who met criteria for PTSD met criteria for at least one of the other four diagnoses. Multivariate analyses indicated that correlates of PTSD were age of adolescent, being female, having experienced serious physical abuse and/or sexual abuse from an adult caretaker, and having been assaulted or injured by weapon when on the street. The multiplicative interaction between sexual abuse by caretaker and sexual assault when the adolescents were on their own was statistically significant, indicating that rape victims were highly likely to meet criteria for PTSD regardless of early sexual abuse. At very high levels of early sexual abuse, the probability of meeting criteria for PTSD converges with that for sexual assault victims.
To evaluate a model of social contextual influences on risk for adolescent pregnancy, 368 target adolescents (52% female, 48% male) and their mothers, fathers, and closest age siblings were assessed ...6 times over a 7-year period beginning when the target adolescents were in 7th grade. Two pathways were found to increase risk for involvement in a pregnancy by late adolescence. Middle adolescent risk-taking behavior mediated the influence of early adolescent parental warmth-involvement and deviant-peer affiliations on involvement in a pregnancy by 12th grade. Also, early adolescent academic competence mediated the relationship between parental warmth-involvement and involvement in a pregnancy by 12th grade. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.
Self‐mutilation, which is the act of deliberately harming oneself, has been overlooked in studies of homeless and runaway youth. Given their high rates of abuse and mental health disorders, which are ...associated with self‐mutilation, homeless and runaway youth provide an ideal sample in which to investigate factors associated with self‐mutilation among a nonclinical population. Based on interviews with 428 homeless and runaway youth aged 16 to 19 years in 4 Midwestern states, the current study revealed widespread prevalence of self‐mutilation among these young people. Multivariate analyses indicated that sexual abuse, ever having stayed on the street, deviant subsistence strategies, and meeting diagnostic criteria for depression were positively associated with self‐mutilation. The findings are interpreted using stress theory and affect‐regulation models.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study examines the effects of childhood-onset conduct disorder on later antisocial behavior and street victimization among a group of homeless and runaway adolescents. Four hundred twenty-eight ...homeless and runaway youth were interviewed directly on the streets and in shelters from four Midwestern states. Key findings include the following. First, compared with those who exhibit adolescent-onset conduct disorder, youth with childhood onset are more likely to engage in a series of antisocial behaviors such as use of sexual and nonsexual survival strategies. Second, youth with childhood-onset conduct disorder are more likely to experience violent victimization; this association, however, is mostly through an intervening process such as engagement in deviant survival strategies.
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