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Mental Health and Adaptation of Children Experiencing Family Homelessness

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Child and Family Well-Being and Homelessness

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Abstract

In a short-term, longitudinal study of children’s adaptation within the context of homelessness, 19 children (ages 8–11 years) and their parents participated while residing in emergency housing for families. The study had three goals: (1) examine mental health symptoms in children and parents at an initial point in time (T1), and again 1 month later (T2) to assess rates and change over time; (2) compare symptoms of children’s traumatic stress and other internalizing problems as reported by children and by parents; and (3) test whether aspects of children’s cognitive functioning and parenting warmth assessed at T1 predict mental health symptoms at T2. Results indicated high rates of traumatic stress, internalizing, and externalizing symptoms among children with little evidence of change over 1 month. Rates of clinically elevated distress in parents decreased significantly from T1 to T2. Compared to children’s self-reported traumatic stress symptoms, parents’ reports of their children’s traumatic stress symptoms were significantly lower and were associated with parents’ self-reported distress. Parenting warmth and child executive functioning predicted fewer child externalizing problems at T2. Contrary to expectations, executive functioning at T1 predicted higher scores for child traumatic stress and other internalizing problems at T2. We discuss implications of these findings for assessment of child and family functioning in the context of emergency housing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA

    Janette E. Herbers Ph.D. & Lyuboslava Kolarova

  2. Department of Psychology, Rutgers University—Camden, Camden, NJ, USA

    J. J. Cutuli

  3. Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA

    Amanda Albu

  4. Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA

    Lauren A. Sparks

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  1. Janette E. Herbers Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Janette E. Herbers Ph.D. .

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  1. Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

    Mary E. Haskett

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Herbers, J.E., Cutuli, J.J., Kolarova, L., Albu, A., Sparks, L.A. (2017). Mental Health and Adaptation of Children Experiencing Family Homelessness. In: Haskett, M. (eds) Child and Family Well-Being and Homelessness. SpringerBriefs in Psychology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50886-3_2

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