Cross-national comparisons of homeless youth in Melbourne, Australia, and Los Angeles, CA, United States were conducted. Newly (n = 427) and experienced (n = 864) homeless youth were recruited from each site. Compared to Australia, homeless youth in the United States were younger, more likely to be in school or jail, demonstrated fewer sexual and substance use risk acts, fewer suicidal acts, and reported less need for social services. Across sites, experienced homeless youth were more likely to be older, male, engage in sexual and substance use, report greater need for social services, and make greater use of work, substance use, and health-related services. Homeless youth have different behavioral profiles in Australia and the United States, reflecting differences in the effectiveness of service systems in the two countries in keeping youth with fewer problems out of homelessness.
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There are two equally compelling yet contradictory general hypotheses regarding cross-national differences between homeless youth in AU versus US: (1) Australian youth may have better overall health and behavioral profiles because they live in a society where the social service sector is more accommodating of youth and stresses a harm reduction approach; (2) Australian youth may have worse overall health and behavioral profiles than American youth because, living in a society where the social service sector is better developed and more supportive of youth, being homeless is an indicator of more troubled youth who have fallen through the cracks.
Most research on homeless adolescents has focused on chronic experienced homeless adolescents who have been out of home for extended periods of time or have had multiple episodes of leaving home. The distinction between newly homeless young people who have been out of home for a short period of time and chronic experienced homeless young people has been often overlooked in the research literature (Milburn, Rotheram-Borus, Brumback, Mallett, Rosenthal, Witkin, & May, Unpublished data). The distinction that has been made most often among homeless adolescents has been between young people who are literally on the streets and young people in shelters (Kipke, Montgomery, Simon, & Iverson, 1997; Greene, Ringwalt, & Iachan, 1997). Time out of home is implied within a classification of homeless young people based upon the location but it is not the primary classifying criterion. Classifying homeless young people by time out of home provides a greater understanding of the heterogeneity of homeless young people.
Based on a previous study which audited homeless youth in Los Angeles (Witkin et al., 2005), the six month cut-off point for “newly” homeless youth emerged as a naturally occurring division in this population.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
National Institute of Mental Health grants #1ROI MH49958-04 and P30MH58107 supported this study.
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Milburn, N.G., Rotheram-Borus, M.J., Rice, E. et al. Cross-National Variations in Behavioral Profiles Among Homeless Youth. Am J Community Psychol 37, 63–76 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-005-9005-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-005-9005-4