Definitions of youth homelessness: A review of the peer-reviewed literature S/A

Research on homeless, runaway, and street youth is hampered by lack of a standard definition of youth homelessness. We reviewed the definitions in the peer-reviewed literature.

We conducted a search in PubMed, using MeSH heading “homeless youth”, and in Psych Info, using keywords “homeless” and “adolescent.” We included articles reporting original research regarding homeless adolescents and young adults conducted in the United States or Canada that were published in peer-reviewed journals in English or French from 1996 to 2007. We excluded articles that only addressed youth living with homeless families.

We identified 193 articles. From these, we identified ten non-exclusive definitions of homeless youth: type of shelter used such as homeless shelters or outdoors (80 articles, 41%); meeting subsistence needs via the street economy, e.g. panhandling, prostitution, drug dealing, etc. (11 articles, 6%); not living with, or lacking support or supervision from parents or guardians (44 articles, 23%); duration of homeless episode (42 articles, 22%); prior homelessness in youth who are currently domiciled (42 articles, 22%); unstable or impermanent living situations (25 articles, 13%); self-identification as “homeless” or a related term (8 articles, 4%); presence at “hangouts” frequented by homeless individuals (2 articles, 1%); no definition specified (76 articles, 39%).

Fifteen articles (8%) used a definition that did not fit into any of the categories above.

There is a need for a standardized, meaningful definition of youth homelessness for policy and research. Its absence impedes comparison of results across studies and the ability to make conclusions about homeless youth.