This paper reviews and evaluates the literatures on children in families that are homeless and on adolescents who are homeless on their own. After presenting several emerging theoretical approaches, we propose a broad ecological-developmental perspective that recognizes that, although persons in these groups often lack resources and experience negative events that can amplify the risk for poor outcomes, they also have resources and adaptive potential. The perspective also recognizes that homelessness may have different meanings and outcomes at different points in development and that we need to consider interactions between individual development and multiple levels of social organization in order to foster new solutions to homelessness. On the basis of this perspective, we discuss directions for treatment and preventive interventions as well as social policy.

After a discussion of definitional issues when studying homelessness and a brief review of the existing research literature in the United States, this article provides an overview of the similarities and differences between the research literatures in the United States and other developed nations. Similarities include many shared characteristics of homeless populations (e.g., over-representation of men and those traditionally discriminated against) and differences include the timing of interest in the topic (earlier in the United States and the United Kingdom) and the extent of social welfare systems (generally less developed in the United States than inEurope). The articles in this issue include literature reviews, studies comparing homelessness across nations, articles that examine specific issues in relation to homelessness in particular nations, and policy-oriented discussions.

An intensive case management intervention for homeless persons was evaluated by random assignment of 202 cases (involving 213 adults and 70 children) to the intervention or a control group. Full follow-up data (4 interviews: at baseline and at 6-, 12-, and 18-month follow-ups) were available on 98 cases (105 adults and 37 children). The follow-up rates for the 2 groups were not significantly different. Based on 13 repeated measures analyses, there were 3 statistically significant linear time effects (indicating overall change across the follow-up period) and 3 linear Time x Condition interactions (indicating differential change over time for intervention vs. control participants). Regardless of condition, adult participants improved in terms of their experience of homelessness, as well as on physical health symptoms and stressful life events. Condition x Time interactions indicating positive intervention impact were observed on the quality of housing environments, stressful life events, and interviewer ratings of psychopathology.

Adolescents in foster care are at considerable risk of homelessness. Preventive initiatives can reduce homelessness in this population by implementing improved foster care programming and developing empirically informed interventions targeting foster care adolescents.

Compared a probability sample of 118 homeless adolescents (ages 12-17) from 6 shelters from throughout the 7-county Detroit metropolitan area to a matched sample of 118 housed adolescents using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC), which yields diagnoses based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.; DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) criteria, and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Adolescents in the housed comparison group were matched on age, sex, race, and neighborhood characteristics. Analyses, including ones controlling for a set of 10 risk and resilience factors, indicated that the homeless showed more disruptive behavior disorders and alcohol abuse or dependence on the DISC and greater levels of symptomatology on the BSI. There were no significant group differences on drug abuse or affective disorders, and psychotic disorders were rare in both groups. This pattern of findings is not entirely consistent with popular stereotypes about homeless youth nor with many existing studies (which have often failed to include an appropriate comparison group).