OBJECTIVES Social network analysis can provide added causal insight into otherwise confusing epidemiologic findings in public health research. Although foster care and homelessness are risk factors for methamphetamine use, current research has failed to explicate why homeless youth with foster care experience engage in methamphetamine use at higher rates than other homeless young adults. This s...

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the combined influences of orphaned status and homelessness on HIV seroprevalence and risk among street-involved Ukrainian youth in 2008. DESIGN Systematic, multicity, community-based, cross-sectional assessment. METHODS Time-location sampling was used to identify eligible youth aged 15-24 after city-wide mapping of 91 sites where street-involved youth gathered in Od...

BACKGROUND A total of 1.7 million youth are homeless in America and nearly half are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The purpose of this study is to investigate survival strategies, anxiety, and self-esteem among male homeless adolescents. OBJECTIVES This study tested two hypotheses: (a) Survival strategies of homeless adolescents differ by sexual orientation/gender identity. (b) There...

Background Homeless youth are the fastest growing sub-group within the homeless population. They face impaired access to health services and are often left unsupported. They lack social and family support or relationships with service providers. Unsupported homeless youth often become homeless adults. Purpose To test a model based on Peplau's Theory of Interpersonal Relations, examining the inf...

Homeless youth are one of the most marginalized groups in our society. Many researchers identify much higher levels of various problem behaviors among these youth compared to their non-homeless peers. The current study examined the utility of social capital in predicting problem behaviors among homeless youth. Overall, the theoretically derived social capital variable significantly predicted su...

Few studies exist on the types of characteristics associated with service utilization (e.g., shelters, food programs) among homeless youth in the U.S. Services are important, however, because without food and shelter, numerous homeless youth resort to trading sex in order to meet their daily survival needs. Access to physical and mental health services gives homeless youth more of an opportunit...

I t is estimated that 1.5 to 2.5 million youth in the United States experience homelessness (Congressional Research Reports, 2006). Homeless youth represent one of the most vulnerable and underserved populations and have been referred to as society’s forgotten children (Whitbeck & Hoyt, 1999). On the surface, homeless youth appear quite similar to their housed peers and are difficult to disting...

BACKGROUND Alcohol use, and in particular, binge drinking, and methamphetamine use is pervasive among homeless youth and remains a social pressure among this vulnerable population. However, there is no compelling evidence that specific interventions for reducing drug and alcohol use are effective for homeless youth. OBJECTIVES This community-based participatory action pilot study assessed the...

BACKGROUND Homelessness is a critical social issue, both a product of, and contributing to, poor mental and physical health. Over 150,000 young Canadians live on the streets. Homeless youth experience a high incidence of infectious diseases, many of which are vaccine preventable. Early departure from school and limited access to public health services makes them a particularly vulnerable high-r...

Little is known about internet and social media use among homeless youth. Consistent with typologies prevalent among housed youth, we found that homeless youth were using internet and social media for entertainment, sociability, and instrumental purposes. Using Haythornwaite's (2001) premise that it is important to look at the types of ties accessed in understanding the impact of new media, we ...