Youth, Homeless

Limitations of Literature

Literature on homeless youth is sparse and much less rigorous than literature on homeless adults or families. Most research on homeless youth comes from large urban areas; such research may not generalize to rural areas or smaller cities. Although recent researchers have begun studying the strengths and competencies of homeless youth, most of the professional literature has focused on the problems and deficits of homeless youth.

Capturing a complete and accurate picture of homeless youth is difficult, and the profile changes, depending on how studies are conducted. Contradictory findings about homeless youth often result, depending on whether one studies formerly homeless or currently homeless youth. Formerly homeless youth can be identified from among a sample of housed youth in the general population. This approach is useful to create minimum estimates of population size, and it presents a more complete profile of the larger homeless youth population and of likely risk factors for homelessness. Unfortunately, it underrepresents youth who have longer histories of homelessness or institutional stays who are less likely to be included in household surveys.

In contrast, studies of currently homeless youth are the most common and provide a sort of “snapshot” of homeless youth on a given day. Because cross-sectional samples of currently homeless youth represent the potential service population, such samples are useful for assessing needs and planning services. Unfortunately, these studies tend to produce a profile that overrepresents youth who have more chronic histories of homelessness, and, as a consequence, findings overstate or exaggerate the levels of problems in the general homeless youth population. In addition, despite their utility, findings from crosssectional samples often present inconsistent or contradictory results among themselves, depending on the source of the samples. Youth who are drawn from shelters are often younger and less likely to have previous histories of homelessness. Youth who are drawn from non-shelter or “street” locations generally yield a much more “deviant” profile, especially if they include those who are eighteen or older. Youth [Page 616]seeking treatment in medical clinics or other treatment settings are often different from other homeless youth, depending on the condition for which they seek treatment.

Nevertheless, despite its limitations, recent literature suggests that homeless youth constitute a large and diverse population.

Definitions

Defining “homeless youth” may seem fairly straightforward, but it is, in fact, a rather complicated task. Most researchers studying homeless persons tend to focus on those who are literally homeless. Here the term homeless youth refers primarily to youth who have spent at least one night either in an emergency shelter or “on the streets”—that is, in places outdoors or in improvised shelters without parental supervision. Whereas an unknown number of youth experience homelessness as part of a homeless family (i.e., with one or more parents), the term homeless youth used here includes only youth “on their own,” without supervision of a parent or legal guardian.

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