Correlates of Street-Survival Behaviors in Homeless Young Adults in Four US Cities
Correlates of Street-Survival Behaviors in Homeless Young Adults in Four US Cities
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1939-0025.2011.01108.x
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发表时间：
2011-07-01
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Pollio, David
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Ferguson, Kristin M.;Bender, Kimberly;Pollio, David
这项研究评估了无家可归的年轻人在街头生存的普遍性和相关行为。生存行为包括卖淫、卖血或血浆、交易毒品、偷窃和乞讨。来自4个大都市区的196名无家可归的年轻人——加利福尼亚州洛杉矶（n = 50）；Austin, TX (n = 50)；科罗拉多州丹佛（n = 50）；和密苏里州圣路易斯市（n = 46）——参加了个人、半结构化、面对面的访谈。研究人员预测，年轻的短暂性与高比例的生存行为有关。多变量逻辑回归用于检验预测生存行为与短暂性、就业、物质使用和社会支持之间关系的模型。那些不稳定的、失业的、吸毒的、依赖同伴帮助的年轻人更有可能使用这些生存行为。此外，在瞬变子样本中，白人、更依赖同伴的帮助、更瞬变和受害与这些生存行为的高使用率相关。确定与生存行为相关的环境和人口因素表明，将减少伤害的战略与减少无家可归的年轻人的短暂性的努力结合起来可能是有价值的。
This study assessed the prevalence and correlates of behaviors used by homeless young people to survive on the streets. Survival behaviors include prostitution, selling blood or plasma, dealing drugs, stealing, and panhandling. One hundred ninety-six homeless young adults from 4 metropolitan areas-Los Angeles, CA (n = 50); Austin, TX (n = 50); Denver, CO (n = 50); and St. Louis, MO (n = 46)-participated in individual, semistructured, face-to-face interviews. Researchers predicted that youth transience would be related to high rates of survival behaviors. Multivariate logistic regression was used to test a model predicting relationships between survival behaviors and transience, employment, substance use, and social support. Young adults who were transient, unemployed, drug-addicted, and reliant on peers for help were more likely to use these survival behaviors. In addition, among the transient subsample, being White, more reliant on peers for help, more transient, and having been victimized were associated with high use of these survival behaviors. Identification of the environmental and demographic factors associated with survival behaviors suggests that there may be value in combining harm-reduction strategies with efforts to reduce the transience of homeless young adults.