The Relation of Gender, Race, and Housing to Social Supports, Mental Health, Educational Attainment, and Anxiety Among Homeless and at-Risk Youth

Background/Purpose: Youth who are homeless are prevalent throughout North America. Youth become homeless for a variety of reasons, often including family instability due to abuse, drug use, financial issues and/or familial relationship breakdown. Youth who are homeless are at higher risk of mental illness when compared to their housed counterparts. However, few studies are available on the specific relationship of anxiety and homelessness when compared to other mental disorders. The present study considers the impact that social supports have on youth who are homeless, particularly in relation to mental health factors and educational goals. While the relationship between mental health and social supports has been explored in past studies with the general population, this study focused on how prevalent these factors are within the population of homeless youth when compared to a non-homeless sample. 

Methods: Data and samples: This study is one of few large North American longitudinal studies of adolescence and the transition to adulthood for youth who are homeless and at-risk located in an urban city and its surrounding areas (HALO). The participant pool consisted of 250 homeless and 148 matched housed youth age 13-17.  

Measures: Participants were assessed for a link between social supports and levels of anxiety during adolescence and emerging adulthood with particular attention to gender and race. Mental health status was assessed at baseline using the BSI and interviewer ratings. ISEL measures were used as a standardized measure of various aspects of social support, and the mediation effects of social support were studied. Chi-square and t-tests were also used to examine the relationship between gender, social supports, and anxiety. 

Results: Results revealed the presence of social supports appeared to be a protective factor, and youth with a history of social support were more likely to show reduced levels of anxiety and higher educational goals. Homeless youth who reported a history of social support shower lower levels of anxiety when compared to homeless youth without reported social supports. Gender became non-significant in predicting anxiety when controlling for race and housing status in a multiple regression analysis.

Conclusions and Implications: Anxiety levels were lower and educational goals were higher for housed participants and those that reported a history of social support. Additionally, homeless youth also reported lower levels of social support. Both time and context sensitive measures of social supports and onset of homelessness would be needed to gain a better depiction of why there is a relation between housing status and social supports, although given the nature of the study and age of the youth, it is likely that the lack of social supports preceded homeless status. Exploring the sources of anxiety and other stressors such as events involved in PTSD could be a good way to help determine the specific type of anxiety disorder that a participant is experiencing. Additional inquiry into caretaker/family/youth relationship could provide insight in relation to the nature of the correlation that exists between homelessness and social supports.