Social Resources and Psychosocial Adaptation of Homeless School Aged Children

Julia C. Torquati, Wendy C. Gamble

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study examined social resources and psychosocial adaptation of 38 children between the ages of 6 and 12 (21 male, 17 female) who were currently experiencing a housing crisis. Results indicate that the impact of stressors depended on the informant: mother-reported stressors significantly predicted negative parenting, internalizing, and externalizing; and child-reported stressors were inversely associated with positive parenting and school adaptation, and positively correlated with child's negative affect. Mothers were nominated over three times more frequently than any other social network member, and almost half of the children did not identify any friends in their social network. Network size did not significantly predict children's psychosocial adaptation, but satisfaction with support was associated with less negative affect. Results suggest that social resources provide unique opportunities for the development of competence for children.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)305-321
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Social Distress and the Homeless
Volume10
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2001

Keywords

  • Homeless children
  • Mother-child relationship
  • Resilience
  • Social support

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

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