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群体：无人陪伴的无家可归青年的经历。据估计，这一群体由160万至170万年龄在14-24岁之间的年轻人组成，他们每年都无家可归，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，他们的社会网络和关系，以及他们与学校和庇护所等机构的联系或回避。这项研究将从三个方面推动关于贫困和城市边缘的学术研究。首先，它将更新关于无家可归的社会学描述，以反映儿童和青年无家可归的不成比例且日益增加的脆弱性。其次，它将调查青年无家可归与其他几个城市社会问题（如监禁和失业）之间的密切联系，显示无家可归是如何成为城市贫困再现的一个重要但被忽视的因素。第三，这项研究将有助于引发关于美国城市“深度”或“极端”贫困的争论。这项研究的结果将传播给众多受众，包括社会学家、政策制定者、与无人陪伴的无家可归青年一起工作的个人和组织。通过家庭或社区针对贫困青少年的政策干预往往会忽略无人陪伴的无家可归青年。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、弱点和经历。这项研究将制定一套详细的政策建议，说明如何更适当和有效地为无人陪伴的无家可归青年提供服务。这项研究将以纽约市为基地，在过去的五年里，纽约市每8个公立学校入学的孩子中就有1个无家可归。时间点统计估计，在任何一个夜晚，都有2700到7000名年轻人无家可归，无人陪伴。但这个种群的短暂性和隐蔽性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，是什么事件和轨迹导致年轻人无家可归和无人陪伴？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伴，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现有的定量研究。这项研究将结合对无人陪伴的无家可归青年的民族志实地调查，对同一群体的50次深度访谈，以及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成人专业人士的25次访谈。这将对独自无家可归的年轻人的轨迹、日常生活、经历和需求产生密切和详细的描述。

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.