10$ Due Saturday Annotated Bibliography

Student Name

Annotated Bibliography Bares, D.S., Toro, P.A. (1999). Developing measures to assess social support among homeless and poor

people. Journal of Community Psychology, 27 (2), 137-156. Baras and Toro (1999) sought to assess the social support of homeless populations by using two

commonly used instruments: The Interpersonal Support Evaluation (ISEL) and the Social Network Interview (SNL). In comparing the instruments, the ISEL was found to be useful in indicating a participant’s psychological well-being, while the SNL helped to assess stress-buffering effects. More details regarding the instrument items would have been more helpful for the use of this paper. However, the study’s results substantiate the concept that the presence of social support for the homeless should support physical and psychological health in the way that it cushions the effects of stressful events. These instruments yielded results indicating that larger nonfamily social networks are a predictor for recurring homelessness, as well as mental illness.

Galaif, E.R., Nyamathi, A.M., Stein, J.A. (1999). Psychosocial predictors of current drug use, drug

problems, and physical drug dependencies in homeless women. Addictive Behaviors, 24 (6), 801- 814.

This study was designed to show relationships between psychosocial elements and use of the top three most frequently used drugs among homeless women. The impact of social networks on adaptive and maladaptive coping mechanisms that influence drug use were measured through a version of the Jalowiec Coping Scale, part of a multi-item instrument. Depression, current drug use, drug problems and physical drug dependence were assessed, in other parts of the instrument. Current drug use was found to predict negative social support, depression and less use of positive coping strategies. Homelessness may diminish a woman’s capability to establish and maintain positive social support. This article was very informative in that it gives clearly identified stressors for homeless women and reasons for maladaptation. Use in paper?

Hill, R. P., (1992). Homeless children: coping with material losses. The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 26

(2), 274-287. This one-year study investigated how various possessions and fantasies serve as coping

mechanisms for homeless children. Many of the child participants were resilient despite homelessness because of positive role models. In addition, though they had little material possessions, these children often engaged in fantastical play that portrayed one particular “special” toy overcoming evil and other obstacles, then moving on to a better place. The methods used in this study are primarily interviewing and observation, and were part of an ethnography at a suburban homeless shelter; no psychometric instruments were used. Though the researcher’s background primarily involves an interest in consumerism, this study is valuable to this paper because it allows the reader to acquire background information in the area of coping from the perspective of homeless children. Overall the article was quite simplistic, but informative.

Horowitz, S. V., Boardman, S.K., Redlener, I. (1994). Constructive conflict management and coping in

homeless children and adolescents. Journal of Social Issues, 50 (1), 85-98.

The purpose of their study was to explore the conflict management and coping strategies of

homeless adolescents living in New York welfare hotels, as well as, to assess the differences between homeless children who adapt well academically and those who do not. They also investigated the difference in coping strategies between boys and girls. A modified version of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire was used to assess how children coped with conflicts and other problems. Some areas of the study seemed incomplete. For example, though Math Academic Achievement Test scores were used to measure competence, the fact that these scores were more readily available to the researchers does not necessarily indicate overall academic achievement, since some children do not have a high aptitude for math. A 5-point scale was created to determine how confident the participants were about handling problems of various size and severity. Researchers found that the worst problem reported by participants was peer conflict. The best method of handling this problem was found to be third-party intervention. Positive appraisal of conflict and problem solving were used mostly by low academic achievers. Boys were found to use distancing as a coping strategy, while girls mostly used social support. This article is useful in that it gives specific information about the subscales used.

Kahn, M.W., Hannah, M., Hinkin, C., Montgomery, C., Pitz, D. (1987). Psychopathology on the streets:

Psychological assessment of the homeless. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 18 (6), 580-586.

This study was designed to establish objective methods of assessing the mental health needs of homeless populations. They also sought to establish rates of mental disorder and substance abuse of the homeless by using a structured demographic interview questionnaire and the Alcohol-Drug Use and Effects Survey to obtain information of basic demographics, psychopathology, and substance abuse. Subjects were homeless persons from the meal line of a soup kitchen. The researchers specifically noted that they wanted to focus their study locations where the homeless regularly gather, but should have attempted to obtain subjects from more than one site in order to make the study more comprehensive and applicable to a wider range of homeless persons. This study showed homelessness from the male perspective, and the assessment instruments used demonstrated that the majority of this population used alcohol and street drugs as a method of coping; which had led to trouble with law enforcement for two-thirds of them. In addition, over half of the population assessed had what the researchers defined as severe psychopathology. Use in paper?

Sullivan, G., Burnam, A., Koegel, P., Hollenberg, J. (2000). Quality of life of homeless persons with mental

illness: Results from the Course-of-Homelessness Study. Psychiatric Services, 51, 1135-1140. This study set out to show that those homeless persons who struggle with mental illness actually

have a better quality of life than those who do not. The basis of this argument is that this particular population often receives assistance in obtaining housing and benefits through various public mental health outreach programs. Using sections from the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS), they found was that homeless persons with mental illness had higher medium monthly incomes, though those who were not mentally ill mostly received comparable benefits such as unemployment, AFDC, and food stamps. Quality of life was measured both subjectively and objectively (using a Likert scales). Despite having an income advantage, the results of the quality of life assessment given to the subjects suggest that the mentally ill homeless population experience more instances of victimization, subsistence difficulty, poor physical functioning, and

generally believe they have a poorer quality of life than those without mental illness. This particularly shows homelessness from a male perspective, since this study only included male subjects. This article is useful in that it gives the reader a clear exposure to various psychological scales.

Tischler, V. (2009). ’I’m not coping, I’m Surviving’: Understanding coping in a marginalised population.

Qualitative Research in Psychology, 6, 191-202.

This article explores the assessment of coping mechanisms and the appraisal of standardized measures of coping; particularly the focus is on homeless mothers. The article expresses that historically coping mechanisms have often been inaccurately measured due to arbitrary definitions of the word “cope”, as well as differentiation of valid methods of assessment, and lack of a longitudinal studies that assess these mechanisms over time in various situations. Coping is dynamic, changing with each person’s situation, experience and perspective. Therefore, behaviors typically seen as maladaptive could actually be considered adaptive coping strategies in marginalized populations, such as homeless mothers due to their socialization. Qualitative methods in the use of assessing coping strategies in this population are advocated, and a previous study of homeless mothers adjusting to living in a hostel is reviewed. The strategies most used by these mothers were reframing and engaging in social support per thematic analysis of interviews performed at the start of the first homeless event and again after resettling. Lack of providing a definition for coping at the time of interview affected the answers given by respondents. This article helps the reader understand why revised measures are needed to assess coping in homeless populations. More of a focus on quantitative measurement would have proven more beneficial to this paper.

Tischler, V. A., Vostanis, P. (2007). Homeless mothers: Is there a relationship between coping strategies, mental health and goal achievement?. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 17, 85-102.

They performed a study to see how problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies are used by homeless mothers. The study also measured the mental health and the primary goals status of these women using the Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scales (F-COPES), general health questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The F-COPES was especially instrumental in identifying coping behaviors in those experiencing crisis, such as homelessness and adjustment to shelter life. Use of the scales showed that the most frequent coping strategies utilized by this population were reframing of their current situation and the acquirement of social support, both problem-focused strategies. This research is in line with a number of other studies listed in this bibliography. This article is advantageous because the scales used in the study gives the reader an indication of the types of stressors homeless mothers experience and their coping strategies.

Toro, P. A., Wall, D.D. (1991). Research on homeless persons: Diagnostic comparisons and practice

implications. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 22 (6), 479-488. The researchers attempted to improve upon previous studies done on homeless populations by using three different methods of obtaining a homeless sample; which they felt would provide a broader cross-section. They sought to assess the existence and depth of social networks and social support in homeless populations, as well as, evaluate mental health status and substance

abuse among this group. Sampling occurred over a full year to allow for assessment in all four seasons, though this proved unnecessary as it brought no addition to the study. Psychiatric disorders were assessed using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) and the Derogati revised symptom checklist (SCL-90-R). The DSM-III was used to measure substance abuse. The study found that homeless groups had nearly the same size social networks as nonhomeless groups. The SCL-90-R, which was the self-inventory, revealed that the highest estimate of mental illness; which is why it is necessary to use more than one method in assessment. Fifty-eight percent of the subjects had been diagnosed with some form of mental illness within the six months prior to the study, which may indicate homelessness as a source of mental illness. This study’s results helped to dispel the myth that homeless person have no social support resources, and indicates that social support is a viable way of coping. It also shows that maladaptation to homeless may take the form of mental illness or drug abuse.

Wong, Y-L. I. (2000). Measurement properties of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression Scale in a homeless population. Psychological Assessment, 12 (1), 69-76.

This study proposed to evaluate the measurement properties in the Center for Epidemiologic

Studies – Depression Scale (CES-D) by using it in a probability sample of homeless adults residing in Alameda County, California, a largely diverse community. Subjects for this investigation were chosen from a 2 year longitudinal study to document the relationship between serious mental illness and the course of homelessness. The results of the investigation found that the CES-D had relatively good internal consistency and reliability for use of measuring the symptoms of depression in the study participants. The investigation also showed that depressive symptoms decreased, as CES-D retest scores suggest, when a subject obtained regular domicile. This ultimately suggests that homelessness is a major source of depression; a negative way of coping. This article was excellent in explaining how a psychometric scale is assessed.