Homeless families with young children have become a troubling public health issue. Studies have documented an array of cognitive, perceptual, and other deficits among such children. This study included a probability sample of 43 homeless children (ages 4-10) from sites throughout a large Midwestern metropolitan area and a sample of 43 poor housed children matched on gender, race, age, poverty, and number of children in the family. When compared on thought and attention problems (Child Behavior Checklist), receptive vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised), and visual-motor integration (Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration), no significant group differences were found. However, both groups combined performed significantly more poorly than normative samples. These findings, combined with some other recent studies including well-constructed comparison groups, suggest that poverty (rather than homelessness) may be a more important determinant of children's cognitive and perceptual outcomes. In the total sample, hierarchical regression analyses identified several risk and protective factors. As expected, more parenting hassles was associated with more child attention and thought problems, more family conflict was associated with more attention problems and poorer child visual-motor integration, and mothers with better receptive vocabulary had children with better vocabulary. Younger children had poorer age-corrected receptive vocabulary scores, suggesting poverty may have a particularly harmful impact during early development. Contrary to expectations, children in larger families had fewer thought problems, suggesting a possible supportive effect of having siblings. The November presentation will include additional data on child depression, conduct problems, and other child outcomes.
Learning Objectives: Upon conclusion of this session, the participant (learner) will be able to: 1). Discuss cognitive and perceptual functioning among homeless and poor children. 2). List risk and protective factors associated with homeless and poor children's cognitive and perceptual functioning. 3). Describe intervention services that may be helpful for poor and homeless children, especially ways in which shelters can assist poor families
Keywords: Homelessness, Children With Special Needs
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.