Doctoral Dissertation Research: Unaccompanied Homeless Adolescents in New York City

这个项目将探索美国无家可归人口中增长最快但研究最少的亚群：无人陪伴的无家可归青年的经历。据估计，每年有160-170万年龄在14-24岁之间的年轻人无家可归，没有父母或监护人。这项研究将详细了解他们无家可归的轨迹、他们的生存策略、他们的社交网络和关系，以及他们与学校和庇护所等机构的联系或避免。这项研究将从三个方面推进贫困和城市边缘的学术研究。首先，它将更新无家可归的社会学肖像，以反映儿童和年轻人对无家可归的不成比例的--以及日益增长的--脆弱性。其次，它将调查年轻人无家可归与其他几个城市社会问题之间的密切联系，如监禁和失业，展示无家可归是一个重要但被忽视的因素，与城市贫困的再现有关。第三，这项研究将有助于引发关于这座美国城市“深度”或“极端”贫困的新争论。这项研究的结果将传播给多个受众，包括社会学家、政策制定者以及为无人陪伴的无家可归青年工作的个人和组织。无人陪伴的无家可归青年往往被通过家庭或社区针对贫困青少年的政策干预所遗漏。同样，青少年往往被排除在针对无家可归家庭和无家可归成年人的服务之外。他们也有不同的需求、漏洞和体验。这项研究将就如何更恰当、更有效地为无人陪伴的无家可归青年提供一套详细的政策建议。这项研究将设在纽约市，在过去五年中，每8名在公立学校注册的儿童中就有1人经历过无家可归。时间点统计估计，在任何一个晚上，都有2700到7000名年轻人无家可归，无人陪伴。但这些种群的短暂、隐蔽的性质意味着我们对它们的生活知之甚少。这项研究有四个中心研究问题。首先，导致年轻人无家可归和无人陪伴的事件和轨迹是什么？其次，日常生存需要什么，这些技术是否涉及风险或对摆脱无家可归者构成障碍？第三，无家可归如何影响社会关系，包括与家庭成员和同龄人的关系，包括无家可归者和非无家可归者？最后，在无人陪伴的无家可归青少年的生活中，机构参与和支持的模式是什么？为了回答这些问题，本研究将使用混合定性方法来补充其他领域学者已有的定量研究。这项研究将结合对无人陪伴的无家可归青年进行的民族志田野调查，对同一群体进行50次深入采访，并对包括收容所工作人员、社会工作者、法律倡导者和教师在内的25名成年专业人员进行采访。这将为独自经历无家可归的年轻人的轨迹、日常生活、经历和需求提供详细的描述。

This project will explore the experiences of the fastest growing but least researched subgroup of America's homeless population: unaccompanied homeless youth. This group consists of an estimated 1.6 - 1.7 million young people aged 14-24 who experience homelessness with no parent or guardian each year. This study will generate a detailed understanding of their trajectories into homelessness, their survival strategies, their social networks and relationships, and their connection to - or avoidance of - institutions like schools and shelters. This research will advance scholarship on poverty and urban marginality in three ways. First, it will update the sociological portrait of homelessness, to reflect the disproportionate - and growing - vulnerability of children and youth to becoming unhoused. Second, it will investigate the intimate ties between youth homelessness and several other urban social problems, like incarceration and unemployment, showing how homelessness is an important but overlooked factor implicated in the reproduction of urban poverty. Third, the study will contribute to emerging debates about "deep" or "extreme" poverty in the American city. Findings from this research will be disseminated to multiple audiences, including sociologists, policy makers, and individuals and organizations who work with and for unaccompanied homeless youth. Unaccompanied homeless youth are often missed by policy interventions that target poor teenagers through families or through neighborhoods. Likewise, adolescents are often excluded from services aimed at homeless families and at homeless adults. They also have different needs, vulnerabilities and experiences. The study will develop a set of detailed policy recommendations about how unaccompanied homeless youth can be more appropriately and effectively served.This study will be based in New York City, a city in which 1 out of every 8 children enrolled in a public school has experienced homelessness in the past five years. Point-in-time counts estimate that between 2,700 and 7,000 young people are homeless and unaccompanied on any given night. But the transitory, hidden nature of this population means that we know little about their lives. This study has four central research questions. First, what are the events and trajectories that lead to young people becoming homeless and unaccompanied? Second, what does daily survival entail, and do these techniques involve risks or pose barriers to exiting homelessness? Third, how does homelessness affect social relationships, including with family members and with peers, both homeless and non-homeless? Lastly, what are the patterns of institutional engagement and support in the lives of unaccompanied homeless teens? To answer these questions, this research will use mixed qualitative methods to complement existing quantitative research by scholars working in other fields. This research will combine ethnographic fieldwork among unaccompanied homeless youth, with 50 in-depth interviews with the same group, and 25 interviews with adult professionals, including shelter staff, social workers, legal advocates and teachers. This will yield a close and detailed portrait of the trajectories, daily lives, experiences and needs of young people experiencing homelessness alone.