Factors that Influence Homeless Adolescents to Leave or Stay Living on the Street
- PDF / 78,888 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 432 x 648 pts Page_size
- 48 Downloads / 155 Views
Factors that Inf luence Homeless Adolescents to Leave or Stay Living on the Street
Cheryl Raleigh-DuRoff
Introduction Hidden, transient lifestyles make the number of world and U.S. homeless adolescents hard to estimate (Ringwalt, Green, Robertson, & McPheeters, 1998). A rough estimate is 30–170 million worldwide (Farrow, Deisher, Brown, Kulig, & Kipke, 1992); 1.5–2 million in the United States (Rew, Taylor-Seehafer, Thomas, & Yockey, 2001); and 2,000 in Seattle each year, with 800 on the street on any given night (Smart, 1991). Adolescents are leaving home at an increasingly earlier age, and are staying on the street longer (Smart, 1991). Before the age of 18, one youth in eight will run away from home and become a street person in need of personal services (Gary, Moorehead, & Warren, 1996), and 40% do not return (Kurtz, Lindsey, Jarvis, & Nackerud, 2000). They live in many different places: regional institutions, hotels, abandoned housing ‘‘squats,’’ or they exchange sex for housing. They also ‘‘couch surf’’ at friends’ houses or sleep on the street. In these situations 52% of the homeless youths report having been assaulted on the street (Youth Care, 2001). Many studies have identified the reasons these youths become homeless. However, little is known about how some are able to overcome overwhelming challenges and make successful transitions off the street and into an adult lives, while others sink deeper into trouble. In view of the seriousness of the phenomenon of adolescents choosAddress correspondence to Cheryl Raleigh-DuRoff, 2737 53rd Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98116; e-mail: [email protected]. 561
Ó 2004 Human Sciences Press, Inc.
562
CHILD AND ADOLESCENT SOCIAL WORK JOURNAL
ing to live on the streets, this study undertook to identify factors that commonly support homeless youths who successfully leave the street, in order to gain insight for helping others. The goals were to: 1. describe the contributing factors that influence and assist homeless youths to actually leave the street; 2. identify the role of hope in the process of leaving the street; and 3. determine what factors keep youths on the street. Literature Review A study of literature reveals much information about homeless youths, but little about motivating them to enter the mainstream. Researchers have focused on several factors that cause adolescents to leave or to be thrown out of their homes to become throwaways. In a sample of 304 Seattle youths, 43% reported being asked to leave home (Youth Care, 2001). Adolescents become street people because of: lack of adequate family functioning and support, parental divorce, separation or death of a parent, change in schools, failing a grade in school, problems with teachers or students, delinquent behavior, alcohol or drug use, abuse, mental illness (Rew et al., 2001), families cannot provide financial support (Gary et al., 1996), and they cannot identify with their families (Smart, 1991). Physical or sexual abuse was reported by 60% of homeless youths (Bass, 1992). Most studies of homeless adolescents
Data Loading...
